Agritech Platform Gramophone Raises $3.4 Mn Led By Siana Capital The Indore-based startup is leveraging technology to make farming more predictable and profitable for farmers in India
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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Agritech platform Gramophone announced that it has raised $3.4 million (INR 25 crore) funding in a round led by deeptech investor Siana Capital. Its existing investors Info Edge, Asha Impact, and Better Capital also participated in the funding round.
Founded in 2016, the startup claims to have built an intelligent farming system, which has enabled more than 550,000 Indian farmers to increase their income based on improved farming practices.
"We have seen strong farmer adoption with a year-over-year (y-o-y) 15-20 per cent increase in the wallet share of the customers. We will invest in customer acquisition and building the full-stack platform for the farmers to provide a holistic solution for "Maximising Farmer's Income' by enhancing expertise around Agronomic Intelligence for Input business and building capabilities to provide market linkages and access to credit to the farmers," said Tauseef Khan, co-founder and chief executive officer, Gramophone, while commenting on the investment.
Through this platform, the farmers get access to a wide range of inputs and implements, including seeds, fertilizers, nutrients, pesticides, and farming equipment. Farmers gain upto 20 per cent cost benefit on its inputs marketplace and improve yields upto 40 per cent through their advisory, the company further maintains.
"Gramophone team has a deep understanding of the agricultural supply chain. They have emerged as the leading agritech player that caters to a farmer's end-to-end needs by providing the right agronomic intelligence, quality inputs, and transparent market linkages. At Info Edge, we are proud to have partnered with them since 2018 and excited about the massive technological transformation happening in Indian agriculture," remarked Kitty Agarwal, partner, Info Edge Ventures.
In the present age, the agriculture ecosystem is complex, and to solve problems surrounding it, the platform's approach gives an opportunity to agritech companies to build relationships with farmers throughout the crop cycle. The startup's model builds a continuous engagement with farmers leading to better servicing farmer needs and adding multiple revenue streams for the business, which maximizes the lifetime value of a customer.
"We are excited to double down on our investment in Gramophone, and proud of the team's ability to deliver over 100 per cent growth this year, supporting smallholding farmers through a tough Kharif cycle amidst the nationwide lockdown. The team has a product-led approach to deliver full-stack commerce plus business intelligence solution for the Indian farmer, and the new capital raise puts Gramophone in a leading position to build a large, highly engaged customer base within India's fast-growing digital Agri value chains," added Aditi Gupta, principal of investments, Asha Impact.
This funding round brings the total capital raised by the startup to INR 55 crore, to date.
