Alfa Ventures and India Accelerator have joined forces to launch India’s premier seed and early-stage Agritech Cohort, Agrikul. Alfa Ventures is the investment partner while India Accelerator is the acceleration arm in the initiative. The key objectives of the founders behind the launch of Agrikul are to promote technology in Indian agriculture, create a conducive environment for collaboration among startups and foster technological innovation. Mr Dhianu Das, a lead investor in Agrikul, and founder of Alfa Ventures said “Agrikul aims to find and accelerate founders who are working at cutting edge agriculture technologies and empower farmers to reap the benefits of big data, artificial intelligence, smart irrigation, and Internet of Things”. Adding to the vision, Mr Vivek Dahiya, co-founder Boudhik Ventures said, “Even with good Agri-tech products and services there is a lacuna which does not let them transform into a viable business. Team Agrikul will ensure such unique concepts become successful business backed by a strong Intellectual Property portfolio.” Agrikul provides agri-tech startups, access to capital, strategic partnerships, customer exposure, mentorship, tech roadmap, and business services, all in one place.
The program accepts applications from a range of sub-domains, such as Farmer Platforms, Rural Fintech, Agribusiness SaaS, Precision Agriculture, B2B Agri-Marketplaces, Farm to Consumer (F2C) Brands, Agri Biotech, Innovative Foods, Post-Harvest Technologies. Mr Ajay Yadav, the senior investor with Alfa Ventures, said: “Team AgriKul realized the need to unlock opportunities for each element of the agricultural value chain — products (such as food grains, dairy, meat, and fruits and vegetables), inputs (like fertilizers, credit or crop insurance), farming practices, warehousing, logistics, food processing, and food retail”. The initial response to the cohort has been staggering with investors reviewing about 300 applications from around the country. Eventually, ~10 most innovative and growth-hungry startups will be onboarded to the summer acceleration program S2020 by the end of July.
The program was struck by COVID-19 lockdown at the initial stage in March, however, Agrikul’s team has been agile in adopting to online methodology. The pitch sessions, onboarding and mentor sessions are completely online with the exception of a few one-to-one expert sessions with startups, which will be held in small batches.
India Accelerator has been able to bring an impressive bench of mentors and partners to the program who are industry experts and venture capitalists.
It includes Rajendra Lora Founder & CEO FreshoKartz; Anada P Verma Founder & CEO at Fasal; Jatin Singh, Founder & MD at SkyMet; Hemendra Mathur, Venture Partner with Bharat Innovation Fund; Shubhadeep Sanyal, Partner at Omnivore; and Simon Wiebusch, COO Crop Science Division of Bayer to name a few. The other investment partners at Agrikul are Omnivore, NABVentures, Startup Buddy and Orios.
Considering the overwhelming response and an overall supportive environment for Agricultural innovations from the Government of India and the private sector, Agrikul has already started to prepare for its winter program. The accelerator will start inviting online applications for its winter program by September 2020. Interested startups should lookout the company’s website (www.agrikul.org) or LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/company/weagrikul/) to stay updated with the current affairs.
Companies that have already come on board for the program are:
Brainwired – Kochi-based startup provides a livestock health monitoring and tracking system named WeSTOCK. It uses an IoT ear tag and a unique ML algorithm to identify health issues and track the heat cycle of livestock and alert farmers accordingly.
Skinny Herbs – Promising Noida-based startup with its craft green teas is changing the perception of green teas from ‘a bitter but better’ product to a recreational beverage that makes it easier and tastier for consumers to switch and stick to a healthy lifestyle.
The investors are still reviewing a few applications and are in the final stages of talks with about 10 others to join the program.
About Alfa Ventures:
Alfa Ventures has been relentlessly helping to shape young minds and fill the financial gap for many startups. A few startups mentored and funded by Alfa Ventures are GoMechanic, Chupps, Civilcops, Luxury Rides, Power Gummies, Cleardekho, and more.
About India Accelerator:
A founder-friendly accelerator, India Accelerator aspires to create a noble ecosystem for the founders to focus, build and grow their start-ups by nurturing and mentoring them at various stages. Over 4 successful cohorts, India Accelerator has helped almost 50 start-ups grow from good to great by guiding them to the right set of opportunities and wins thereof.
