Arya.ag, an Indian agritech firm providing storage amenities close to farms and providing lending providers to lots of of hundreds of farmers, has drawn investor curiosity and remained worthwhile whilst international crop costs proceed to fall in a risky commodities market.
The investor curiosity has taken form within the newest all-equity Collection D spherical from GEF Capital Companions, totaling $81 million, of which greater than 70% was main capital and the remaining secondary share gross sales, in keeping with the corporate.
Globally, agricultural commodity costs are falling. Dangers from excessive climate, enter prices, commerce disruptions, and biofuel coverage shifts proceed to weigh on agricultural markets, the World Financial institution has warned. This leaves companies uncovered to cost swings and stock losses. Nonetheless, Arya.ag says it’s navigating the worst of that pressure by steering away from direct commodity bets and utilizing a mannequin that it says helps take up shocks from downward pricing shifts.
Based in 2013 by former ICICI Financial institution executives Prasanna Rao, Anand Chandra, and Chattanathan Devarajan, Arya.ag is constructed round a easy thought: giving farmers extra management over when and to whom they promote their crops. The Noida-based startup gives storage near farms whereas permitting farmers to borrow towards warehoused grain to satisfy rapid money wants and connecting them with a wider pool of consumers — from agri-corporations to processors and millers — serving to them keep away from the strain to promote simply after harvest, when costs are sometimes weakest.
The corporate operates at scale, which units Arya.ag other than conventional lenders, banks, and different agribusiness platforms. The startup says it aggregates and shops about $3 billion value of grain annually — roughly 3% of nationwide output — and facilitates round $1.5 billion in loans yearly, whereas conserving its price of unhealthy loans (generally known as gross non-performing belongings, or NPAs) under 0.5% regardless of the latest drop in costs.
Arya.ag lends solely a portion of the worth of saved grain and tracks costs intently, triggering margin calls when required quite than taking losses itself, Rao stated. Debtors can reply by repaying a part of the mortgage or including extra grain as collateral.
“You’re not resistant to dangers,” Rao instructed TechCrunch. “However as a result of your lending is totally secured towards commodities, it should by no means occur that the costs will fall by 90%. You have already got a margin of 30%, and together with your mark to market, you’ve been in a position to management your NPAs and defaults.”
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Within the yr ended March 2025, Arya.ag generated internet income of ₹4.5 billion (round $50 million), with first-half income within the present monetary yr rising about 30% from a yr earlier to ₹3 billion ($33.3 million). Revenue after tax stood at ₹340 million (about $3.78 million) final yr, and has risen an additional 39% up to now this yr, Rao stated.
Arya.ag says it now reaches between 850,000 and 900,000 farmers throughout 60% of India’s districts, working via a community of about 12,000 agricultural warehouses, all leased from third events. The startup generates income from farmers for storage, from banks for originating loans towards saved grain, and from consumers for facilitating crop gross sales via its platform.
Storage stays the biggest contributor, accounting for about 50–55% of whole income, whereas finance contributes 25–30% and the remaining comes from commerce, Rao stated.
Arya.ag disburses greater than ₹110 billion (about $1.2 billion) in loans to farmers annually via its platform. Between ₹25 billion and ₹30 billion (roughly $278 million–$333 million) of that comes from its personal steadiness sheet through its non-banking finance arm, Rao stated, with the remaining originated for associate banks.
Arya.ag’s loans carry rates of interest of about 12.5% to 12.8%, properly under the 24% to 36% sometimes charged by fee brokers, Rao stated, although larger than financial institution lending charges of round 11% to 12%. He added that banks typically don’t lend within the small, native markets near farming areas that Arya serves, the place mortgage sizes are a fraction of typical financial institution tickets and debtors are sometimes situated removed from formal branches.
The startup approves loans in beneath 5 minutes with disbursements dealt with virtually totally digitally, Rao stated.
Expertise performs a central function in how Arya.ag manages danger and scale. The startup makes use of AI to evaluate grain high quality for lending selections, satellite tv for pc information to trace crop stress earlier than harvest, and hermetic, sensor-enabled storage baggage that enable farmers to retailer grain for prolonged intervals even in villages with out formal warehouses.
Arya.ag plans to make use of the contemporary capital to scale its tech deployments additional, together with increasing sensible farm facilities and deploying extra digital instruments nearer to farms. A part of the funding, Rao stated, may also go towards strengthening the startup’s blockchain-based system that digitally tracks saved grain, permitting crops used as collateral or bought via the platform to be monitored throughout lending and commerce transactions, alongside continued funding in storage and credit score infrastructure.
With the most recent capital infusion and enhancing profitability, Arya.ag is aiming to be IPO-ready within the subsequent 18 to twenty months, Rao stated.
Past India, Arya.ag plans to increase selectively via a software-led mannequin, with a few of its know-how already deployed in components of Southeast Asia and Africa. The startup has a headcount of over 1,200 full-time staff.
Avendus suggested Arya.ag for the brand new monetary spherical.
