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| AGRI-STARTUPS: GATEWAYS TO INNOVATIONS-11 | | | Dr. Parveen Kumar, Dr. D. Namgyal
Continuing with the previous article published yesterday, a startup has different investment phases and the investment required at each phase is different. The major investment phases of a startup cycle are as follows:
i. Pre-seed stage (Early stage, Pre-product): This stage is considered to be the starting point where the founder(s) tries to convert the idea into a business opportunity. The founder and certain key personnel are the main employees of the firm. This stage requires a small funding for the research where the viability of an idea is assessed. In this stage the possible forces of funding are mostly self-financed (savings), FFF (Family, Friends & Fools), angel investors, accelerators and lately a new breed of funding method known as crowd funding. The risks of failure to survive and transit into the next stages are very high. As the funds are low during this stage, refinement and realignment of the product should be the main focus. Better adjustments are needed to upgrade the product and avoid the ‘Valley of Death’. The ‘valley of death’ is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. During the Death Valley Curve, additional financing is usually scarce, leaving the firm vulnerable to cash flow requirements.
ii. Seed stage: (Early stage, immature product): This stage focuses on orienting the company in the broader marketplace and developing a deeper understanding of what the customer wants and how to refine the product according to their taste. This is one of the early stage where we have a product or service which may be almost complete or be immature. Although the product or idea is still immature, it has got a name, a brand, but most of the funding at this stage still comes via bootstrapping or the generosity of friends, family or through some crowd funding, incubator or accelerator money.
iii. Start up stage: This stage involves introducing and positioning the product into the market place’
iv. Early stage: This stage is concerned with increasing sales of the product and improving efficiency.
v. Expansion stage: It is concerned with product diversification.
vi. Mezzanine stage: At this stage the company has moved beyond start ups. At his stage, startups are relatively secure and profitable and are in a later stage of operations. The funds raised at this point will be geared toward expansion to new markets, mergers, acquisitions, or preparing for an Initial Public Offering. Investors at this stage want to see a clear roadmap toward profit shortly.
KEY AGRITECH FOCUSED INCUBATORS IN THE COUNTRY:
Some of the key agritech based incubators in the country include Centre for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE) IIM Ahmadabad which has launched India’s first Food & Agri-Business accelerator for start-ups in food and agri-business sector in partnership with agriculture research management institutes. National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM): NAARM launched a-IDEA (Association for Innovation Development of Entrepreneurship in Agriculture) which is a Technology Business Incubator (TBI). NAARM launched Agri Udaan, Food & Agribusiness Accelerator in partnership with Caspian Impact assessment. The International Center for Research in Semi arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has also launched Innovation Hub (i Hub) to support agricultural tech entrepreneurs, scientists and technology experts can collaborate to innovate cutting edge ideas across the whole agriculture value chain. Some other incubators are SIDBI Innovation and Incubator Center (SIIC), IIM Calcutta innovation park, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology Business Incubation (KIIT-TBI), NASSCOM Centre of excellence for IoT and many others. The National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (NIAM) has also an Agribusiness programme and an agri preneurship orientation programme.
SUCCESSFUL AGRISTARTUPS IN INDIA:
Some of the successful Agristartups in the country include SFarmsIndia, Kheti Gaadi, Farm2Fam, Crofarm, BOHECO, Aarav Unmanned Systems, Aibono, Agricx Lab, Cropln, FASAL, Gold Farm, Ninjacart, Waycool, Intello Labs
Indian agritech startups have received 300 per cent more funding in the first six months of 2019 than the total funding received in 2018. Farmers and agritech startups in India have evolved rapidly over the past few years due to digital penetration and funding, majorly driving the growth in this sector. New areas in the agritech sector such as market linkage, digital agriculture, better access to inputs, farming as a service (FaaS) and financing are attracting more and more stakeholders to connect with this new trend in agriculture. Indian agritech companies are also focusing on South East Asia, Europe, Africa and South America. Every 9th agritech startup in the world is from India. By 2024, Indian agritech startups are estimated to employ 90 lakh peoples. Agritech Startups are providing relevant and innovative solutions to a number of challenges faced all across the agricultural value chain.
In a bid to double the farmers’ income, the GoI has made 22 regulatory reforms to support startups, launched Startup India with 19 Points Action Plan and hosted an Agricultural
Grand Challenge to provide the startups with an ecosystem to flourish in. Moreover, the State Governments are not far behind and therefore 27 states and 3 UT have made tremendous policy reforms to uplift the startup ecosystem and improve the livelihood of not only farmers but all of them who are directly or indirectly involved with startups.
The startups are an exemplar that great things are done by a series of small things brought together. A new wave of budding entrepreneurs and emerging startups in the country are leading the way in disrupting the age old agriculture system with innovative ideas and affordable solutions. These startups have become the missing link between the farmers, input dealers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers connecting each of them to each other and providing strong marketing linkages and quality produce on time. Our Hon’ble Primeminister Sh. Narendra Modi has rightly said that, ‘We have a million problems, but at the same time we have over a billion minds that can solve these problems. The startups particularly the agri startups have gave the opportunity to billion of minds to use their talent to solve the problems of masses (concluded). |
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