Profiling
Agri Tech platform Unnati (Akshamaala Solutions Private Limited) raises Pre Series A round (USD 1.7 MM) from NABVENTURES Fund (NABARD)
Unnati, an agritech startup, has raised $1.7 million in Pre-Series A funding from NABVENTURES Fund. The funds will primarily be used to scale up its tech platform and to set up more partner stores.
Mumbai- 7th October 2020: Founded by Amit Sinha (former CFO of Paytm, IIM Calcutta alumnus) and Ashok Prasad (earlier with Tata Teleservices, IIFT alumnus), Unnati is positioned as a technology-enabled platform to provide access to competitively priced inputs to farmers and uses its reach to enable farmers to get a remunerative price for their produce by enabling them to access better markets in a fair and transparent manner. It also provides financial services to the farmer besides point-of-purchase farm advisories.
Dr. G. R. Chintala, Chairman NABARD and NABVENTURES, said, “Unnati has created a platform to digitalize the major components in the food and agribusiness value chain. The predictive capabilities of the data captured by the platform enhances efficiencies while its transparent processes help in building trust among farmers and FPOs. Unnati has the potential to be a nationwide platform for multiple services in the agricultural value chain.“
Manikumar S., COO, NABVENTURES said “Unnati team is solving some of the important problems faced by farmers like lack of access to quality inputs at transparent prices and lack of last-mile market linkage to sell produce at competitive prices. The amalgamation of a fintech layer has resulted in customer stickiness. We appreciate the agri input selling and market linkage proposition of the Unnati platform and are happy to support it on its onwards and upwards journey.”
Unnati has a strong network of partner stores for selling agri inputs and purchasing produce in Eastern, Central and Western India. Unnati With the newly-raised funds, Unnati will now focus on introducing the best of digital technologies to farmers and FPOs in the country.
Ashok Prasad, Cofounder said, “At Unnati, our overarching goal is to empower the country’s farmers and bring the best of technologies to enhance their productivity. Since we cater to a multitude of farming needs, the current capital injection will allow us to expand our value proposition in terms of innovative digital tools that we offer. We are grateful for this association with NABVENTURES (NABARD) and look forward to attaining new and important milestones on the back of this funding. This funding will help us invest in technology and in increasing our geographical and crop footprint”
Speaking on the funding, Mr. Amit Sinha, Cofounder said: “On this journey of creating farmpreneurs through digital tools we are proud to have NABVENTURES (NABARD) as a partner. NABVENTURES shares our vision of bringing a positive change in the agriculture industry and creating value for all stakeholders. We look forward to gaining from NABARD’s deep experience, knowledge and scale of operations in Indian agriculture and look forward to a long and mutually beneficial association.”
The tech-driven platform has previously received funding from notable angel investors including Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Paytm), KRS Jamwal, current and former Paytm senior executives Vikas Garg, Shankar Nath, Renu Satti, Gemba Capital, and Ajay Lakhotia. The current investment transaction has also been supported by Sumeet Seraf who acted as an advisor on the transaction.