This IIT Delhi alumnus is empowering farmers with her agri-tech startup
India’s agriculture sector, which employs more than half of India’s overall population, has been facing a crisis on many fronts. One of the many difficulties faced by the agriculture community is supplying the produce, especially fruits and vegetables, before it perishes. IIT Delhi graduate Anu Meena saw it all very closely and decided to solve it with her startup, AgroWave.
Gurugram-based AgroWave optimises agriculture supply chain using research, analytics, and technology, and is currently working with thousands of farmers in India to get the right price, supply, and distribution network. AgroWave establishes technology-driven mobile pickup stations (MPS) in villages at farm-gates from where it collects the produce. The farmers have to download the AgroWave app and they receive notification about the MPS timings and other information. AgroWave later does a customised sorting, grading, and packaging to maintain the quality. The startup then uses its tech-enabled logistics and delivers the produce to customers for free of cost. AgroWave basically buys the produce directly from farmers and sells it to small mandis and businesses such as hotels, retailers, restaurants, caterers, canteens, PGs, and even individual customers.
Anu says that she started up with zero investment and worked on the business model and technology alone. Her pilot project grabbed investors’ interest and the startup raised an undisclosed amount of funding in 2017 from Daffodil Software Pvt Limited.
“It’s important to build trust with farmers to work with them. Our MPS model is helping us build trust with small and medium farmers in rural areas. It is helping them to sell the produce easily through our mobile app,” says Anu. “We are building farm to business mobility supply chain through an integrated network of mobile pickup stations at farm gates. We are focused to build strong technology to create more efficient supply chain,” she adds.
Anu’s aim is to drive change in farmers’ lives by giving them better returns. “We are focused to build strong technology to create a more efficient supply chain,” she says.
