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Hi everyone,
I come from the Jaat community in India. In my home state of Rajasthan, Jaat are usually associated with farming.
While my father was in the army, my uncles were traditional farmers. Since Rajasthan is a desert state, I’ve seen them struggle as bad weather ruined their crops.
After a poor season, they often have to turn to local lenders so they can purchase grains, fertilizers, and anything else they need. But these lenders provide loans at an interest rate of 2% to 3% per month – or around 24% to 36% per annum.
Farmers are left with no choice but to borrow from these parties since Indian banks hesitate to provide them credit. These smaller, usually unregulated lenders offer terms that can eat into a large portion of a farmer’s yields and even repossess farmlands if the farmer can’t repay the loan on time.
Understanding this situation, India-based agritech firm Arya.ag had a clear goal in mind: to assist farmers with warehousing, loans, and ensuring they receive the right price for their produce. This profitable agritech firm does this by partnering with banks to provide warehousing finance options and connect farmers directly with end buyers.
In this week’s Big Story, I break down how this agritech startup operates, became profitable, and if the model can be replicated in Southeast Asia.
Speaking about profitable firms, in the second Big Story of the week, my colleague Deepti discusses how CoinGecko, the crypto data aggregator, has remained profitable even during the crypto winter.
Also, in this week’s AI Odyssey, I discuss Canva’s new genAI offering, which it has developed under a partnership with OpenAI, Google, and Runway ML.
P.S. The team behind On the Rise will be taking a short break next week. But fret not, we’ll be back in your inbox on October 31.
— Lokesh
THE BIG STORY
1️⃣ Profitable Indian agritech firm says its model can’t be replicated in SEA yet
Image credit: Made by Tech in Asia using Midjournet
AI ODYSSEY
FYI
NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW
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