Chhavideep Singh
Source: NXT Startup
Gramophone is an agricultural technology start-up that helps farmers to harvest better yields by providing them with all necessary information and education about agriculture. Recently, the start-up has announced via press release to have raised INR 25 crore or USD 3.4 million in its latest Series B funding round.
The funding round was led by India-based investor, Siana Capital Management. Existing investors including U.S-based Better Capital, Delhi-based impact investor- Asha Impact and Infor Edge also participated in the company’s Series B funding round.
According to the company profile on CrunchBase, the total funding received by the company till date is worth USD 7.9 million in over 4 financing rounds.
Founded back in 2016 by Tauseef Khan, Ashish Rajan Singh, Nishant Mahatre and Harshit Gupta, Gramophone aims to bring all necessary knowledge about agriculture to the farmers to help them achieve a better yield. The start-up was created to make a difference in agriculture by introducing technology-based information to the farmers and every bit of information about the right kinds of inputs that will help farmers achieve the maximum output out of their efforts.
The farming and agriculture platform provides farmers with access to information about all kinds of inputs including seeds, nutrients, fertilisers, farming equipment and pesticides.
Kitty Agarwal from Info Edge Ventures says that Gramophone has a deep understanding of agriculture and its supply chain. The company has emerged to be a leading agriculture technology player in the Indian market that caters to the farmer’s needs by providing them with the correct knowledge, skillset and agronomic skillset including quality input materials and transparent market linkages.
Commenting on the latest infusion of funds, Tauseef Khan, CEO and co-founder, Gramophone says that the start-up has seen a strong adoption with 15-20% increase in wallet share of customers every year. He further added that these freshly acquired funds would be utilised to improve the company’s market linkages and provide credit access to farmers among other necessary things.
Furthermore, the company says that leveraging technology for agriculture can change the information asymmetry in the ecosystem. Farmers can get localised crop harvesting practices, weather information coupled with crop advisory to produce the best yields.
All of these steps combined together will enhance farming and agricultural productivity and help farmers to sustainably increase their income from agriculture and its practices.
Gramophone claims to provide 20% cost-benefit to farmers on Gramophone’s input market and 40% yield improvement through its agricultural advisory practices.