Indian Government Ready to Set Up New Funds for Agritech Startups: Piyush Goyal

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that the government is looking at setting up funds for agritech startups. Agritech is basically agriculture technology, which is everything from genetically modified crops to artificial intelligence.

In a webinar held on Sunday, Piyush Goyal said that the government will launch an agritech fund, ready to us as it is expecting a large amount of startups to participate in Defence R&D, as there is a lot of potential for entrepreneurs in the drone, defense, and technical textile industries. He also added that technology and innovation will be the driving force behind India’s success.

In the future, the Indian Agritech sector plays an important role as it provides food as well as employment and contributes to technological progress, as it becomes more integrated every passing year with tech entrepreneurs, it is showing more and more success and progress.

The latest data shows that 53 Indian agritech companies have raised a whopping total of $313 million and the agricultural sector has received around $3.2billion in global investment, which makes a very successful step ahead for Indian startups and inspires a lot of youth entrepreneurs of the country to explore the agricultural technologies with the information needed.

The Agritech sector in India has grown from 43 startups in 2013 to over 1,000 in 2020, as a result of increased rural internet penetration, increased post-harvest and supply chain losses, expanding investor interest in the sector.

The funding and supply chain challenges are outstanding according to experts. Although the number has increased, the reports show that the growth rate will still be low than expected. There are numerous variables that are contributing to the growth rate in the agritech sector.

Increment of investments through domestic, foreign enterprises as well as government agencies will be a problem solver and would result in the sector’s significant growth and development in the upcoming years.

However, in the next five years, the agritech industry will see a growth of around 19% CAGR which is driven by growth in food consumption and disposable income across sectors.

With over 65,000 registered firms in just five years, India raises to the third largest startup ecosystem in the world.

A long while, by the end of 2022, the farmer’s income will be doubled as promised by the government, which is also an encouragement for more agritech startups. As more than 80% of the population of the world is depending on agriculture as their livelihood, government encouragement towards startups will create great opportunities for farmers to use new technology to evolve and improve their productivity and also increase revenue

Businesses like NinjaCart, Agrostar, Waycool, Intello Labs, EM3 Agriservices, Intello Labs, etc have revolutionized the Indian agritech sector by helping farmers

B2B agritech startup AGRIM raised $10 million in Series A funding in February led by Kalaari Capital.

And in January, startup WayCool, fresh produce distribution raised $117 million in a Series D funding round.

Lastly, earlier this month, Ninjacart startup acquired a SaaS-based smart solutions provider. Followed by Otipy raised $32 million in the Series B funding round.

India will reach $24.1 billion by 2025 and the agritech market will take off according to the report by Inc42. According to Bain & Company report, the Indian agritech market will project growth of $30-35 billion by 2025. As it has received funding of $1 billion between 2017-2020.