New Delhi: Agritech startup Faarms has raised $2million in its seed funding round backed by global investors. The round was led by Koh Boon Hwee and Dr Cornelius Boersch among other angel investors.
Faarms has been modelled as the Amazon for the farming community – as one stop online shop to access at the click of a button a huge inventory of certified products to be delivered to the farmer’s doorstop with cashless payment options. The absolute interiors of the farming belt of India struggle with even the most basic of requirements like seeds, fertilizers, cattle feed and of course the resources to buy them and carry the heavy loads back. Faarms was introduced as the single point platform to address all these challenges.
Cornelius Boersch, Founder at Mountain Partners said, “I think Faarms has the potential to revolutionize the agriculture industry not just in India but also in South East Asia at large. Platforms that directly connect producers with buyers provide a significant opportunity to enable all stakeholders of the value chain. This business has the potential to empower the rural farmers of the country and at the same time making it commercially successful.”
Faarms today has 8 lakh subscribers, delivers to 20,000 villages in over 200 pin codes and has been able to make a difference in the lives of 60% of cattle farmers across 14 villages in the heart of Rajasthan in Kota who experienced a 16% rise in their average income.
“Faarms was conceived with the aim to build an e-marketplace for the farming community of our country with the idea to help a kisaan purchase inputs from some of the best-known brands in the world and obtain crop-related advice at the click of a button, sitting at home. We want to bring financial inclusion and spread digital literacy to rural India by helping farmers adopt digital payment with the help of on-ground staff,” says rural banker Taranbir Singh, Co-founder & CEO Faarms, who was heading Rural Banking Division at Yes Bank, prior to joining Faarms.
“The fund we have raised will be used to expand our footprint in North-Eastern, Central and Southern states of India. Besides, we are looking to add new product segments and services for the farmers as well, deploying advance technologies for seamless functioning of the multilingual platform making it easier for the farmers to access information,” says Alok Duggal, COO & Co-founder at Faarms. He further added, “We are thankful to all our investors who believed in our work and came forward to support us in building a company that is truly going to shape the farming ecosystem of our country.”
“As active investors in SMEs working at the grassroot level, we are truly pleased to see the way Faarms is able to reach out to a large number of farmers during the pandemic covering a large geography within a short duration. We are confident Faarms will disrupt the way farmers source their farm products and acquire knowledge,” said Singaporean angel investor Koh Boon Hwee.
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