[Startup Watchlist] What's new with Agritech in India?

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Agriculture is a huge and high impact sector which is now being penetrated by agriculture. Man has always tried out various methods with agriculture and now we're in an age where technology gets its turn. New developments are being made within different sectors within agriculture to increase productivity and here, we look at three interesting companies in food supply chain, horticulture and agriculture that are making a mark in India:

1. FrontalRainFrontalRain has a food supply chain software (on the cloud). The venture was started by 3 senior executives from SAP with over 50 years of combined business and product development expertise in the enterprise software business. FrontalRain has a range of Rainplus products- Grow, Make, Move, Trade and Serve.

For instance, 'Rainplus Grow' is a grower management solution for agribusinesses to manage large supplier base and to ensure seed-to-truck traceability. While vertically integrated players can benefit by implementing the complete Rain+ suite, emerging agribusiness players can benefit by deploying parts of Rain+ solution. FrontalRain has a number of clients including Sagar International, Malpuri Group, KMG Robus, etc.

2. MITRA

MITRA is on a mission to develop the most technologically advanced agricultural implements for horticulture in India. Started in 2012 in Nashik, Mahrashtra, MITRA began with rental service business using electrostatic sprayers and successfully provided 1500 rental services in the season and generated ROI above 100% in three months.During late 2013 and early 2014, prototypes were developed and trials were conducted. MITRA then went on to raise funding and came up with Grapemaster (fully automated sprayer) and Pomaster (customized product for Indian pomegranate growers).

3. Eruvaka

Eruvaka Technologies develops on-farm diagnostic equipment for aquaculture farmers to reduce their risk and increase productivity. It helps farmers to monitor their ponds in a better way and reduce their investments to make it sustainable.Eruvaka integrates sensors, mobile connectivity and decision tools for affordable aquaculture monitoring and automation. The company was started Sreeram Raavi in 2012 and has more than 100 installations as of now. Eruvaka plays in a niche but a potentially huge segment. Read more about them.

Interestingly, all the companies above turned out to be Omnivore investees! Omnivore^® Partners is a venture fund investing in early stage agriculture and food technology companies in India. they are doing some great work giving support to some high impact startups, check out their portfolio of companies.

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