[Funding alert] Agritech startup Aqgromalin raises seed round led by Zephyr Peacock

Aqgromalin, a tech-driven farm diversification platform enabling farmers to diversify into animal husbandry and aquaculture, has raised Rs 5.5 crore in seed funding led by Zephyr Peacock India Growth fund, a provider of growth capital to startups in India.

The round also includes participation from IndigramLabs Foundation, and other noted angels from the agri startup ecosystem.

The value chain for livestock farming activities in India is fragmented and lacks transparency. The activities include poultry farming, cattle farming, aquaculture, insect farming etc. Indian livestock farmers face challenges in procurement of inputs and sale of output produce, resulting in unpredictable incomes. Aqgromalin is pioneering the delivery of tech-enabled services to this sector. The company provides tech-driven solutions to farmers to help augment their farm income by organising the supply of input and marketing output.

Prasanna Manogaran, Co-founder and CEO, Aqgromalin, said,

“Animal husbandry and aquaculture sector in India is underserved and highly fragmented. Livestock farmers face various issues, including limited availability of quality inputs, lack of quality feed, and lack of access to markets at Aqgromalin, we are building a one-stop end-to-end solutions platform to help farmers overcome these issues.”

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Aqgromalin plans to use the funds for team expansion, technology development, category addition, and geographical expansion.

Pankaj Raina, Managing Director, Zephyr Peacock, added, 

“The livestock industry plays a critical role in the Indian economy. It contributes over 4 percent to the GDP and provides employment to millions of Indians. However, the industry is highly unorganised, and farmer income is low. Aqgromalin is deploying technology that would help address the pain points across the livestock value chain and improve access of inputs and markets for the ecosystem.”

Incepted in 2019, Aqgromalin claims to be the first company in India to provide farmers with live input material delivered at the farm gate for animal husbandry and aquaculture. The agritech company is organising the protein value chain and helping farmers improve their incomes by enabling them to diversify. 

Aqgromalin deploys technology to enhance reach and engagement through its mobile and web platforms for customers. The startup is working on IoT monitoring solutions for animal husbandry and aquaculture with AI deep learning inference. It is also building a blockchain-based traceability platform for animal husbandry and aquaculture produce. 

Headquartered in Chennai, the company has currently reached over 40,000 livestock farmers across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, and Kerala. The company plans to reach over 1,00,000 farmers by the end of 2021.

Bharani CL, Co-founder and COO, Aqgromalin said, 

“Our mission is to democratise access of live inputs to our farmers especially small landholders, thereby enabling them to diversify into animal husbandry and aquaculture at ease. In the next few years we plan to build the sourcing and supply infrastructure to deliver a wide variety of live inputs at the farmgate.”