Stop Point for Rural Farmers: Meet The Man Who Has Developed a Marketplace For All Farming Needs

Pumpkart, an agritech startup, began growing in rural regions in 2020 by creating farm equipment franchises. It has opened more than 75 outlets in a year and plans to open 500 or more by December 2022 across India. 

Dr. KS Bhatia is the founder and CEO of Pumpkart, a modern farming equipment retail chain. 

Bhatia, a chemical engineer, and IMT Ghaziabad MBA graduate is no stranger to the startup world. Although his first two firms failed, his mind continued to work. 

Due to the lack of stores in rural regions, he quickly realized that farmers needed to go to nearby towns to obtain agricultural machinery and tools. Even back then, they couldn't access the latest tools and machines that were common in Tier 1 cities. 

More about Pumpkart and Its Future Goals 

Pumpkart was founded by Bhatia in May 2014 to assist farmers in upgrading outdated, conventional agricultural equipment with new farm machinery. His goal was to modernize rural India by transforming rural retail into modern retail in at least 10% of the nation's 7,00,000 villages. 

Pumpkart is bringing modern retail to Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns, as well as rural locations across the country. It assists in the conversion of tiny, unorganized retail stores into branded stores by providing payment choices such as debit and credit cards, as well as insurance. 

Bhatia feels that encouraging retail in rural regions is critical to bringing rural areas up to speed with urban areas. "With a shortage of modern retail establishments and issues for farmers, the focus on urbanization has left rural regions neglected." 

Pumpkart has established modern retail outlets in high-traffic regions of Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns, as well as rural areas. Farmers no longer need to drive to surrounding cities to obtain agricultural equipment, he said. Pumpkart, situated in Chandigarh, was thrust into the limelight by a single occurrence, according to Bhatia, who has more than 18 years of experience in pump supply. 

In his 'Digital India' speech before Prime Minister Narendra Modi in California in September 2015, Google CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted the firm as an online success story. 

Bhatia points out how much has changed since then. 

The Ongoing Journey of Pumpkart 

Pumpkart with a personal investment of Rs 20 lakh as a B2C model - a platform that educates people about the proper product by providing technical specifications. It began by focusing solely on agricultural and domestic pumps.