As per a recent report the agritech sector is expected to create around 8-10 unicorns in the next five years.
This is thanks to continued investor interest, even as the start-up ecosystem struggles through a funding winter.
Promising future for Indian agritech
Till date, the Indian agritech sector has not minted any unicorn.
A report from investment banking firm Avendus Capital says that agritech start-ups are also anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of close to 50 percent.
The market could hit $34 billion by 2027.
Pankaj Naik, executive director, and co-head of Digital and Technology Investment Banking, Avendus Capital said, “Agriculture, which contributes $530 billion to India’s GDP, sees less than 1 percent tech penetration.
The unique innovations in production, supply-chain/ market linkage, quality assessment, and digital traceability have the potential to become ‘from India to the world solutions.”
IPOs
IPO timelines for many agritech ventures are three to five years away which can be met with the precursor of active investments.
“Going forward, we expect to see higher deal activity led by growth funds followed by IPOs in the latter half of the decade,” Naik added.
Indian agritech start-ups raised $296 million across 27 private equity and venture capital deals in the first half of this financial year.
This is almost double the $157 million through 23 deals during the same period in FY22.
Racing ahead of other sectors
Agritech continues to attract investors even as other segments grapple with a funding winter.
These investors are optimistic about the nascent sector’s potential to grow on rising demand for quality food, supported by macro tailwinds like climate change and food security concerns.
The boost in growth is driven by four key factors:
- Increasing digital penetration across India
- Covid-led supply chain disruption
- Growing consumer interest for quality produce
- Increasing private equity and venture capital interest
Agritech revolution
Since 2010, almost $3 billion of funding has gone into backing more than 1,500 agritech companies in India, compared to the $45 billion raised globally by such firms, says the report.
Varun Gupta, executive director, Digital and Technology Investment Banking of Avendus Capital said, “India is standing at the cusp of an agritech revolution as we see the confluence of rural India warming up to increased usage of technology platforms.
Indian agritechs have been experimenting and pivoting over the last few years and have now identified scalable, capital-efficient business models with a strong path to profitability.”
Prominent names
The report takes into account start-ups building across the value chain in pre-production, production, and post-production segments
This includes companies like DeHaat, FarMart, BharatAgri, Sammunnati, Otipy, Waycool, and so on.
