AgriGator is a B4B digital platform in the agribusiness supply chain. They focus on the secondary side of the grain supply chain, i.e., FPOs, traders, local mills, industries, exporters, and distributors, which contribute about 70% of any grains’ lifecycle.
Krishi Jagran interviewed the owner of AgriGator, Udit Sangwan, who comes from the city of Lakes, Bhopal. He has always been drawn toward technology and has more than five years of experience working in the start-up industry.
1. Tell us about your company and what does it do? What were the challenges of setting up and scaling and how did you overcome them?
AgriGator helps processors and mill owners buy, sell and dispatch agri commodities with a click. We also offer factoring services to traders to help them grow. In short, an easy-to-use platform to manage the day-to-day activities, analyze forecasts based on past transactions, and accordingly help manage inventory. Challenges were in terms of tech adoption initially but then, fortunately – unfortunately, Covid played an integral role and helped change the cash-driven industry and drove them towards digitalization. The scale has never been a challenge since we are asset-light.
2. What are the key USPs that stand you apart from the companies operating in the agritech space?
We are offering a suite of services to our customers. They can sell/buy commodities, book on-demand logistics, and be eligible for instant payments in one place. Processors and millers can manage their books, analyze forecasts based on previous transactions and get help with managing inventory.
3. Supply Chain innovations are driving the agricultural sector of India towards a paradigm shift. What are the measures taken by your brand to boost this drive?
First of all, we are spreading technology to nontech-savvy people, educating them with business analytics. Secondly, our company is building a strong pipeline (on-spot logistics) infrastructure. Also, Lastly, we create a strong ecosystem, for timely fulfillment of orders, reducing cost and wait time.
4. How is AgriGator revolving around the life of farmers in today’s digital world?
At present, AgriGator is focused on streamlining the operations of mill owners and processors. We believe that the industry should be demand-driven instead of being a production push.
Bridging the information gap on the post-harvest side of the supply chain will eventually create a positive impact for the farmers in the long run.
5. How is AgriGator developing since inception in terms of transactions and presence?
We have gown 20 times since Mar '21. From 94 logistics trips, we have grown to more than 2800 trips a month. We entered the procurement service last year and have grown 6 times in 6 months. Our presence has increased from 10 mandis to 120 mandis. we have more than 10,000 users working with us.
6. What are your growth plans for the year 2022?
We are a tech and logistics first company; logistics is the bigger pain and a centralized hook for the entire supply chain. We are scaling our logistics arm, resulting in winning customer trust. Logistics is our entry-level service, then users begin to use procurement and factoring-based financing. This creates stickiness and eventually they start using our entire suite of services. This strategy will attract more users to the platform resulting in a network effect.