After procuring produce from farmers, traders have traditionally relied on distributors or brokers to transport the produce from farms to mandis across states. Due to the high fees demanded by the brokers for arranging on-the-spot transportation, small scale traders and industries are often driven to take micro-loans to meet their transportation needs - a need-gap that AgriGator aims to address.
Simply put, AgriGator is a Bhopal-based B4B digital platform solving for the agribusiness supply chain. The startup focuses primarily on mill owners and processors.
With more than 2000 truck drivers and over 500 traders and industry bodies on board, the platform charges a commission of 3-5 percent per truck shipment, and a membership fee for premium services. It also provides timely payments, diesel discounts, priority loans, and fuel benefits to truckers which help them save 10-12 percent on costs.
Currently operating out of Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Uttar Pradesh, AgriGator aims to go pan-India in the next 8-10 months. The startup plans to raise a Pre-series A round in the next 2-3 months.
In the past the company had raised two rounds of funding from 100X.VC (a Sanjay Mehta-led venture) in 2019. The seed funding round was led by Manish Modi, Ness Wadia and the Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Shama-led Venture Catalyst in December 2020.
Founded in September 2019 by IIM Ahmedabad alumni Udit Sangwan and Charu Chaturvedi, AgriGator was formed with an idea to rectify gaps in the agri-supply chain – varying from trust in trade to on-spot logistic arrangement to financing the trade.
The platform is built on a customer centric ecosystem by catering to their various needs, utilising the existing infrastructure, and innumerable growth opportunities for customers.
AgriGator aims to be a one stop, one-click solution for hassle free booking of on-spot agri-logistics for multiple lanes across India, with minimum turnaround time for bookings and easy tracking of vehicles. For fleet owners, the company offers transparent Invoicing, no margin loss, loads availability from nearby areas.
Talking about how AgriGator helps the various stakeholders of the supply chain while also creating employment, Udit Sangwan said, “Our ultimate vision is to become a one stop solution for all needs of the agri supply chain. We are building a platform that will act as the medium for all stakeholders of the supply chain to explore various integrations and grow their businesses. Financing through the fintech product that will help all the stakeholders with ready finance for trade and in turn grow their businesses exponentially. With the fund we are aiming to go pan India.”
The company has grown 10 times and is now looking at more than 738 percent of revenue growth, having also seen 710 percent of gross merchandise value (GMV) growth. It is also targeting a majority share of the intra-state and outbound agri-logistics movements from Madhya Pradesh.
The company closed FY 2021-2022 with more than 2800 trips, with a GFV of more than 12 crore for the month of March alone. They also did a trade of more than 3500 metric tonnes in March 2022. Overall, the company has a geographical presence of more than 120 agricultural produce and livestock market committees (APMC) with a total dispatch order of 10 lakh metric tonnes.
With the ambition to be the Amazon for trade, the Uber for agri-transportation, and the NBFC for financing, the startups embraces business values that include 1% improvement every day, customer obsession, ownership and accountability, perseverance, no excuses, technology first, data driven and embrace 10x thinking.