AquaExchange Raises $3 Million In Pre-Series A Funding The company plans to utilize the fund in strengthening technology, e-commerce operations and expanding its farm automation footprint to over 1 lakh acres of farm by FY23
By Teena Jose
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AquaExchange, a full-stack tech-driven platform serving shrimp and fish ecosystem, has raised $3 million in pre-Series A funding from Endiya Partners and Accion Venture Lab, along with the participation of existing investors. The company plans to utilize the fund in strengthening technology, e-commerce operations and expanding its farm automation footprint to over 1 lakh acres of farm by FY23.
"At AquaExchange, the key focus is on adding value to the aquaculture farming process through the use of advanced technology. Our IoT devices and automatic feeders have been installed at scale and are helping farmers with higher reliability or efficiencies in terms of aeration and feed management. We believe that future aquaculture farmers should be equipped with right data at the right time to ensure higher crop successes and also increase farming productivity," said Pavan Kosaraju, founder, AquaExchange.
AquaExchange's vision is to improve farmer productivity and livelihoods by ushering in aquaculture 4.0 into India. The company has already touched lives of thousands of Indian farmers with its patented tech and is demonstrating its value proposition to all stakeholders in the ecosystem, claimed by the company in a statement.
"We are excited to back the AquaExchange team in their vision to transform the aquaculture landscape in India and globally to benefit a large number of aqua farmers. With its differentiated proprietary technology for farm and automation and power management, AquaExchange will not only help bring in efficiencies across the aquaculture value chain but also generate solid data driven insights to bring in access to formal credit, that has largely remained elusive for the sector," said Dr Ramesh Byrapaneni, managing director, Endiya Partners.
Founded in 2020, AquaExchange operates across the value chain through a fintech enabled e-commerce platform that offers high quality inputs at best prices directly from manufacturers, a hardware-as-a-service model for farm automation under the brand name 'NextAqua' and harvest-as-a-service market linkage platform that facilitates harvests at the farm-gate with transparent pricing and assured spot payments to the small holder farmers, according to company statement.
As per market analysis, the global shrimp and fish market is estimated to grow at $400 billion by 2027. This market is at the threshold of a massive change in terms of technology adoption for efficient farming.
