by Shahu Pawar | Sep 7, 2025 | Startoscope
Ninjacart: The Fast Lane from Farmer to Retailer
In the urban pulse of Bengaluru, Ninjacart has quietly built India’s largest tech-enabled supply chain for fresh fruits and vegetables, transforming lives from the fields to city shelves.
The Spark: A Broken Chain, a Bold Vision
Founded in 2015 by Thirukumaran Nagarajan alongside his co-founders Sharath Babu Loganathan, Ashutosh Vikram, Kartheeswaran KK, and Vasudevan Chinnathambi, Ninjacart began by tackling a problem felt by every farmer and retailer: excessive waste, low transparency, and too many middlemen driving up costs. They started as a B2C grocery delivery service, but quickly realized the real pain—and opportunity—lay in the broken B2B supply chain.
The Solution: Tech-Powered Supply Chain Reimagined
Ninjacart switched to a B2B model, digitizing everything from demand prediction to payment. Their platform now handles more than 1000 tons of produce daily, linking 20,000+ farmers in over 20 states to 17,000 retailers and restaurants across seven major cities—all with minimal waste and ultra-fast turnaround.
- AI & Analytics: Advanced forecasting pinpoints supply and demand for each retailer, ensuring every crate moves efficiently and excess is minimized.
- 12-Hour Logistics: Leveraging real-time tracking, Ninjacart gets farm-fresh produce from the field to the retailer within half a day, compared to days in the traditional system.
- Instant Payments: Farmers receive cashless, same-day payments—ending the cycle of slow, uncertain payouts.
- FoodPrint Traceability: Buyers can trace every fruit and vegetable’s journey, enabling trust and rewarding transparency.
- COVID-19 Innovation: When the pandemic disrupted supply chains, Ninjacart launched direct-to-consumer initiatives, ensuring food security and savings for thousands of farmers.
Impact: Efficiency, Empowerment, and Trust
- For Farmers: Predictable demand, fair prices, and financial independence—no more waiting or borrowing from mandi traders.
- For Retailers: Reliable quality, reduced costs, and just-in-time inventory management.
- For Consumers: Fresher produce, complete traceability, and price fairness.
With continued support from investors like Walmart, Flipkart, and Tiger Global, Ninjacart is expanding its network, refining its AI, and empowering every agri citizen in the value chain.
Ninjacart’s story is proof that with relentless innovation and ground-up tech, India’s fresh food supply can be faster, smarter, and fairer—for farmers, businesses, and families nationwide.
by Shahu Pawar | Aug 21, 2025 | Agri Startups, Startoscope
BharatAgri: The Digital Doctor for India’s Farmlands
In India’s vibrant farmlands, a new revolution is quietly transforming how millions of farmers grow their crops and run their businesses. Born from the challenges of Vidarbha’s cotton fields and powered by the innovation hubs of IIT Madras, BharatAgri is championing a uniquely Indian model: where personalized, science-driven agri-advisory meets a farmer-friendly online marketplace, accessible right from Karnataka and beyond.
The Spark: Bringing Science Home to the Fields
Co-founded in 2017 by Sai Gole and Siddharth Dialani, both with deep roots in farming families and top-notch engineering backgrounds, BharatAgri began as an effort to answer a question they’d both faced growing up: How can Indian farmers get reliable, scientific advice and quality products without leaving their villages? They saw that farmers lacked systematic knowledge in agronomy, were often misled or underserved by local retailers, and missed out on crucial timely interventions for better yields.
The Solution: LeanNutri Algorithm, Personalized Advice, and E-Commerce
Dubbed a “doctor for India’s farmlands,” BharatAgri’s secret sauce is its LeanNutri algorithm—a tech marvel that tailors recommendations to each plot’s specific crop, soil, and weather data. Farmers start with a consultation, get a digital “prescription” for what, when, and how much to sow, fertilize, or spray, and benefit from real-time, local language alerts for pest and disease threats.
- Precision Advisory: From sowing to harvest, every step is backed by data and agro-science.
- E-commerce Empowerment: Inputs like seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides—literally the “medicines” for crops—are available in a vast, vetted marketplace delivered to the farmer’s doorstep, even in remote villages. No more stock-outs or long waits, and no need to trust the local shopkeeper over genuine quality.
- Pest & Disease Focus: Farmers receive early alerts and best-in-class solutions for pest and disease management, boosting yields and minimizing losses.
The Impact: Growth, Profit, and Sustainability
BharatAgri isn’t just about advice—it’s about results. Farmers using the platform see up to 30% higher production and a 20% reduction in costs, thanks to tailored recommendations and faster, better access to inputs. With over four million farmers served and a reach across 20,000+ pin codes in India, the platform reduces greenhouse emissions by promoting sustainable practices and guides farmers toward healthier soil and water use.
The Hook: Bharatiya Roots, Digital Heights
Picture a farmer in Karnataka, getting a custom plan for her chickpea field, ordering “crop medicine” with the click of a button, and harvesting higher yields with less worry about pests, market shortages, or misinformation. That’s BharatAgri’s dream in action: bridging ancient farming wisdom with next-gen technology.
With its unique blend of personalized agri-advisory, science-powered algorithms, and rural e-commerce, BharatAgri is setting a new standard—where every Indian farmer can access the right knowledge and products at the right time, and realize the full potential of their land.
by Shahu Pawar | Aug 7, 2025 | Agri Startups, Startoscope
Crofarm: In the bustling urban sprawl of Delhi NCR, Crofarm is leading a digital revolution in agriculture—using AI-driven logistics to connect farmers directly with businesses, reduce waste, and ensure every tomato or mango arrives crisp and fair-priced.
The Backstory: Building from the Ground Up
Founded in 2016 by Varun Khurana and Prashant Jain, Crofarm’s journey began in the world of grocery logistics. The co-founders previously launched Mygreenbox, a grocery delivery startup acquired by Grofers, and quickly realized the biggest pain wasn’t delivery—it was the chaos and waste in the upstream supply chain. Layer after layer of middlemen made produce expensive for consumers and unrewarding for farmers, with up to 40% of fresh food lost before even reaching the city.
Determined to fix this, Varun and Prashant plunged into India’s heartland, visiting farms across Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Haryana. There, they saw the real challenges: farmers struggling with unpredictability, delayed payments, and lack of market access. The duo envisioned a transparent, tech-powered network that would give both farmers and buyers a better deal.
The Solution: AI-Powered Agri Logistics at Scale
Crofarm set up a robust, AI-driven digital supply chain to tackle the root of the problem:
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Direct Sourcing: They buy fruits and vegetables straight from over 20,000 farmers in more than twelve states, cutting out traditional market “mandis.” This shrinks costs and guarantees timely, electronic payments to farmers.
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Demand Prediction: Crofarm uses advanced machine learning to forecast exactly what and how much produce is needed by retailers and consumers. This tech has slashed wastage from 30-40% in traditional systems to under 4%, and sometimes as low as 3%.
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Fast Turnaround: Their system moves produce from farms to city warehouses within hours. Warehouse operations—sorting, quality checking, and last-mile dispatch—are optimized by smart software, with live rider tracking and routing to ensure ultra-fresh, just-in-time delivery.
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Traceability: Every veggie can be traced back to its farm, building consumer trust and rewarding growers for premium quality through a blockchain-based traceability and incentive system.
Impact: A Win-Win for Farmers, Retailers, and the Planet
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For Farmers: Crofarm means more predictable demand, higher earnings (with market guidance), and prompt digital payments—ending the cycle of uncertainty and debt.
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For Retailers and Consumers: Reliable, daily deliveries of fresh, nutritious produce; transparent pricing; and the assurance of quality, with fewer hands (and less time) between harvest and plate.
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On Wastage and Efficiency: Tech-driven demand prediction has brought food waste down to one-tenth of market averages. This saves money, natural resources, and environmental impact.
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For Women & Local Communities: Through its sister brand Otipy, Crofarm empowers over 500 women resellers to distribute at the hyperlocal level, boosting rural incomes and building a new “farmer-to-family” economy.
The Hook: A New Era for India’s Food Chain
Crofarm isn’t just a logistics startup—it’s a community. By weaving together AI, a passionate farmer network, and modern supply chain muscle, it’s making Indian agriculture more transparent, profitable, and sustainable. Their relentless focus has already created a digital, cross-country expressway for India’s fruits and veggies—one that’s fairer to the field and fresher to the fork.
Crofarm’s story proves that with the right blend of tech and purpose, even the most challenging supply chains can be rebuilt for people and planet alike—a harvest of hope for millions.
by Shahu Pawar | Aug 7, 2025 | Startoscope
Fasal: In the bustling tech corridors of Bengaluru, two engineers—Ananda Verma and Shailendra Tiwari—set out to answer an age-old agricultural riddle: How can we help farmers grow more while using less? Their journey began not in a boardroom, but in the fields—both come from farming families and have seen firsthand the unpredictability and hardships their parents faced due to erratic weather, pests, and lack of timely information.
The Spark: A Failed Crop, a Big Idea
Their story took root when their first attempt at growing coloured capsicum—a weekend experiment—ended in spotty, undersized produce. Both knew the science, yet something was missing. This setback planted the seeds for Fasal, which would become an agritech pioneer in AI-powered precision farming.
The Mission: Harnessing Data, Empowering Farmers
Launched in 2018, Fasal uses IoT sensors and AI-driven analytics to turn every farm into a data powerhouse. The system gathers hyper-local data—soil moisture, canopy temperature, rainfall, humidity, and more—from devices placed in the field. This information is crunched in real-time by Fasal’s algorithms to provide farmers with actionable insights in their local language, delivered straight to their smartphones.
The Impact: Smarter Decisions, Sustainable Yields
Fasal’s technology gives farmers a digital crystal ball:
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Water savings: Precision irrigation advisories help save up to 50% water by telling farmers exactly when and how much to irrigate.
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Pest & disease prediction: Early forecasts based on farm-level microclimate data let farmers act preventively, saving on pesticides and protecting yields.
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Increased income: Success stories abound—wine grape growers using Fasal achieved higher yields, reduced sprays, and saved lakhs of liters of water in a single season. Vegetable farmers using Fasal’s tech cut irrigation costs in half while improving crop quality.
The platform operates on a pay-as-you-go model, making it accessible to farms of all sizes and types. Its real-time advisories are trusted from Chhattisgarh’s vegetable fields to India’s largest vineyards and beyond.
The Hook: From Guesswork to Growth
Where once decisions were made on intuition and luck, Fasal brings science and certainty. Farmers now monitor crops “on autopilot,” gain 12-hour forecasts for spray advisories, and know droughts and disease no longer have to mean disaster. Fasal’s journey proves that smart technology—when grown from the soil up—can turn every acre into a well-tended, profitable ecosystem.
Fasal’s story is a testament to two founders who turned failure into opportunity, harnessed the best of AI and IoT, and are helping thousands of farmers “grow more, grow better” for a future that’s as sustainable as it is abundant.
by Shahu Pawar | Aug 7, 2025 | Startoscope
In the bustling heartland of Bihar, a new revolution was quietly brewing in 2012—a revolution not of machines, but of trust, technology, and life-transforming connections. This was the birth of DeHaat, meaning “village” in Hindi, founded by Shashank Kumar and a group of passionate co-founders who had grown up seeing firsthand the struggles and hopes of India’s smallholder farmers.
The Beginning: Farmer-First, Always
Shashank Kumar left a secure job, driven by a vision to change the fate of millions dependent on agriculture. For the first few years, the DeHaat team immersed themselves in the daily lives of farmers not as outsiders, but as allies. They learned that most rural producers were forced to juggle countless suppliers, middlemen, and unreliable advisory services, with little access to modern finance or fair markets. Fragmentation was the enemy.
The Solution: All Under One Roof
DeHaat launched an end-to-end digital platform that would become a lifeline for over 3 million farmers (and growing). Through a unique franchise model, they established thousands of DeHaat Centers run by local entrepreneurs, ensuring last-mile connectivity and trust. The app and its network deliver everything farmers need:
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Quality Inputs: Seeds, fertilizers, and crop protection—sourced reliably and affordably.
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Advisory and Data: AI-powered, crop-specific guidance, weather alerts, and pest predictions, all in local languages.
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Financing and Insurance: Easier access to loans and protection, often for the first time in rural communities.
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Market Linkages: From their field to buyers—even large corporate purchasers—farmers get better prices, more transparency, and faster payments.
The Impact: A Ripple of Change Across India
Operating now in over 12 states and 126,000 villages, DeHaat’s strategy to empower local youth as franchise partners turned them into grassroots change agents. This decentralized yet tech-enabled approach means farmers feel understood, heard, and in control.
With every season, DeHaat’s data-driven advice and market connections have helped farmers boost their yields, increase incomes, and even attract young migrants back home from cities, making agriculture both attractive and profitable again. Their platform now covers over 1.8 million farmers, with ambitions to reach 17 million by 2025.
The Heartbeat: Partnerships and Purpose
What sets DeHaat apart is not just its scale, but its soul. Their success is tied directly to the success of farmers—there are no hidden fees for advice, and profits come when farmers prosper. By connecting the dots between inputs, finance, and buyers all under one digital roof, DeHaat is returning autonomy and dignity to the world’s oldest profession.
DeHaat’s story is proof that when innovation meets empathy, entire rural economies can bloom. It’s not just a startup, it’s a nation’s fields coming alive with hope and possibility.
by Shahu Pawar | Aug 6, 2025 | Startoscope
In the heart of Bengaluru, a revolution in agriculture was quietly taking root—one that would go on to digitize millions of acres of farmland, empower agri-businesses across continents, and make farms smarter, more resilient, and more profitable.
The Origin: Turning Fields into Factories of Data
Founded in 2010 by Krishna Kumar, CropIn began with a simple yet powerful belief: every farm can—and should—be run as intelligently as any industry. Kumar, an engineer with a background in IT at GE, saw the challenges of fragmented data, crop uncertainty, and lack of transparency plaguing the world’s farms. He envisioned technology as the missing link bridging farmers, businesses, and food security for billions.
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” he often said— a mantra that would become CropIn’s rallying cry.
The Solution: SaaS, AI & Analytics for Every Acre
CropIn set out to transform traditional agriculture through a cloud-based platform that brings together AI, data analytics, and intuitive apps for the end-to-end management of farms. Their suite—featuring solutions like SmartFarm, SmartRisk, and CropIn Connect—enabled digitization of fields, monitoring of crops in real time, and generation of predictive insights using satellite imagery, machine learning, and big data.
What does this mean for farmers and agri-businesses?
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Predictive power: AI-driven models forecast yields, disease, and pest risks, arming growers with insights to act before problems escalate.
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Transparency: Crop traceability from seed to shelf, empowering supply chains and consumers.
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Operational efficiency: Automated workflows, mobile accessibility, and cloud reporting save time and costs for everyone in the value chain.
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Global reach: CropIn’s technology is used beyond India, across Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Europe—digitizing fields in over 90 countries.
The Impact: From Bengaluru to the World
CropIn’s journey is a masterclass in scaling purpose-driven innovation:
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Digitized over 16 million acres across 7 million farms.
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Enabled monitoring of more than 500 crops, with local adaptation for thousands of crop varieties.
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Empowered big agri-businesses, governments, FPOs, and smallholder farmers with actionable data—boosting resilience to climate change and market volatility.
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Recognized by the World Economic Forum as a “Technology Pioneer”, and named among the top agri-tech startups by NASSCOM and CNBC.
The Story’s Hook: From Uncertainty to Abundance
Every day, somewhere in the world, a smallholder receives a weather alert that saves her rice crop, a cooperative reduces wastage by optimizing when to harvest, and a retailer traces a tomato’s journey straight from a farm in Maharashtra to a shelf in Paris—all powered by CropIn’s digital brain.
It’s a story of technology not replacing people, but enabling them—giving every farmer, big or small, a fighting chance against uncertainty, and every consumer a reason to trust what they eat.
The Future: Cultivating Intelligence, Harvesting Trust
As global agriculture faces climate extremes and food security concerns, CropIn continues to innovate at the crossroads of data and dirt. With every new acre digitized, they bring us closer to a world where farming is predictable, profitable, and sustainable for all.
CropIn proves that when smart minds meet stubborn problems, entire ecosystems can bloom—and the future of food can be bright, data-driven, and deeply human.
