The Agritech RevolutionaryUnnati offers unique services in the sector that makes them stand out in the sector. It digitizes the entire agri value chain by using their platforms such as uStore app and Farmer app

Once there was a time when someone asked who provides us with food and we simply used to answer, it's the farmers. The world has transfigured a lot from those days. With the advent of technology, along with our simple answer for that old question, the farmers, the agriculture, the journey of the agricultural products and the whole ecosystem has revamped.

Digitization in agriculture has changed the face of the entire agriculture ecosystem - it has enabled both agribusinesses and farmers with enhanced productivity, and increased incomes, lower turnaround times, with streamlined management - both in the stores and farms. The popular player in the sector, Unnati, exploits this dimension of the agritech ecosystem.

The tech firm enables the farmers to have access to both knowledge and product around their crops, get the information about best industry practices, weather reports, image based diagnostics, predictive analytics, and schemes and offers - enabling them to better farming, improved production, resilience, precision, efficiency, and incomes.

Unnati offers unique services in the sector that makes them stand out in the sector. It digitizes the entire agri value chain by using their platforms such as uStore app and Farmer app.

The firm's journey to profitability was not that easier. It is the persistent determination and efforts that made them taste the victory. Being asked more about the secret mantra to the expedition to success, the co-founder of Unnati, Amit Sinha, opened up that, it is by paying the enduring attention to the needs and challenges faced by the stakeholders, an adamant effort to be on top of technology along with the ceaseless innovation on technologies being implemented in the agriculture sector.

Is this an easy task to persistently sustain the way it planned? Well, no! Because of changing consumption habits, changing agri stakeholder behavior towards technology as opposed to traditional farming and above all, access to technology is not as much of a challenge as application of technology is, as per Sinha's words.

In spite of all these obstacles, the founders have an unambiguous prescience on their operational methods. Indulging deep into the company's profitable voyage, Sinha mentioned that consumer tech businesses take more time to turn profitable while B2B/ SaaS tech businesses have a shorter path to profitability. It does take upfront investment in building the technology and bringing in users. However, the path to profitability can be pretty clear if the entrepreneur wants to.

"At Unnati we are already profitable in our core businesses. We are investing into newer crops or geographies and also in new services where we are not profitable," he said.

With technology powered insights on soil, weather, farming history, Unnati agronomy services support farm entrepreneurs through the farming lifecycle which ensures significant improvements in quality and quantity of produce.

Also, with a goal of helping farmers to get optimum returns for their produce, the firm enlist them on a platform giving them access to a wide number of buyers and also provide them with working capital requirements.

The co-founder also divulged the firm's growth plans for the next two years. "We are aggressively growing our network. Over the next 2 years we will grow our network to more than 5 lakh retailers/ traders and 10 million farmers. We have grown 3 times each of the last 2 years and we expect to keep growing at the same or a faster pace in the coming years," said Sinha.

The Indian agriculture sector contributes nearly 18 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 40 per cent of the total rural Net Domestic Product (NDP). The India agritech market is in early growth stage with increasing awareness among farmers due to growth in internet penetration and mobile connectivity. Many agritech startups have entered the industry, especially in the last 5 years, seeing the capability of the industry.

According to theKenresearch report, the industry is expected to witness a CAGR of 32.0 per cent on the basis of revenue by FY'2025. The entry of new players with end-to-end solutions along the agribusiness value chain is anticipated for the future.

Facts:

· Year of inception- 2017

· No. of employees - 280

· Revenue for FY 2021-22: INR 160 crore

· External funding received so far - INR 12 crore in pre Series A from NabVentures, and INR 60 crore in Series A from NabVentures, Incofin, and Orios.