Out of the 1,000-plus agritech startups in India, only a handful are operating in the agri financing space. This segment is the least funded due to multiple challenges involved in achieving scale such as the prevalence of informal credit, repayments in cash and non-availability of customer data
To resolve multiple challenges in the agri fintech space, startups such as Samunnati, Jai Kisan and farMarts are looking at innovative approaches and alternative business models such as working with FPOs and merchants instead of farmers and partnering with market-linkage startups
Will agritech startups’ baby steps towards making fintech accessible to farmers yield results?
What is challenging India’s small and marginal farmers, once considered the economic backbone of the country? As most people already know, the top issue impacting both farmers and agriculture is the lack of timely and adequate finance. Be it drought, flood or pest proliferation, a bad harvest would often force small-scale…