Omnivore, Nabventures Bet on Agri-IoT Startup Krishitantra The company will use the USD 1 million seed capital to expand operations across India, reach lakhs of farmers and help them realize increased profitability and sustainability via improved soil health
By Shipra Singh •
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Krishitantra, a company that provides soil nutrition advisory solutions to agriculture players, on Wednesday said it has raised USD 1 million (INR 7.6 crore) in seed funding from Nabventures and Omnivore.
Founded in 2017 by Sandeep Kondaji, Vishnuprasada Bhat and Anand Bellan Raman, Krishitantra provides rapid IoT-based soil testing and soil nutrition advisory solutions to farmers, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), soil testing labs and agribusiness stakeholders.
It has devised a highly portable IoT device Krishi RASTAA that generates soil test results within 30 minutes after analyzing macro nutrients, micronutrients, pH, organic carbon, EC and microbial counts. Based on the soil test results, crop-specific soil nutrition recommendations are automatically generated and sent to farmers, the company stated.
"We plan to use the funding to expand our operations across India, reaching lakhs of farmers and helping them realize increased profitability and sustainability via improved soil health," said founder and CEO Kondaji.
The Hyderabad-headquartered company aims to optimize fertilizer application for farmers, increasing crop yields, reducing the cost of cultivation and improving soil health. Additionally, the company believes it can have a major impact reducing GHG emissions while promoting sustainable agriculture and soil conservation.
"Rapid soil testing along with real-time agronomy digitizes an important component of farm extension services. The data play at the farm level is of huge value. This affordable solution would benefit farmers, FPOs, and other players in the agri ecosystem. Krishitantra has a market winning solution in the making," G. R. Chintala, Chairman, NABARD and Nabventures.
The company said it also plans to enter select Southeast Asian countries in the coming months.
Commenting on the investment, Gills John, VP, NABVENTURES said "Sandeep and the founding team at Krishitantra have built a cost-effective, rapid soil testing solution which can go a long way in addressing the problem of soil fertility and encourage a shift towards precision agriculture in India. NABVENTURES will help Krishitantra accelerate the spread of its soil testing technology by connecting them with our network of FPOs and leveraging NABARD's pan-India presence."
