The India agri-tech incubator is blooming

2019.11.21
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Incubator News

Incubators, globally, have become an ecosystem with an array of initiatives that stimulate and support economic growth. India ranks third globally in number of incubators, following US and China. The formal incubator-accelerator organizations have disrupted the Indian agricultural startup scenario over the past a few years. The number of incubators and accelerators in India grew a sharp 40% in 2016.

1.The number of the Indian agri-tech incubators has increased rapidly.

The Indian economy is home to over 56,000 startups with about 450 plus in the agri-tech space alone. However, there are only about 12 agri-business incubators have sprouted in the country and about 100 agri-tech products have generated revenue of INR 100 million (US$1.5 million) by 2015.

Fig.1 The Agri-tech incubator development in India

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Most of them are based in agricultural research institutes or universities. For example, Anand Agricultural University, Birsa Agricultural University, and Indian Agricultural Research Institute.

2.The government and market demands are catalyzing the agri-tech incubation environment.

The government is catalyzing agri- entrepreneurship with programs like the Agri-Udaan Accelerator and the Agri Grand Challenge. The CGTMSE (Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises) is spurring banks to lend at highly affordable rates to startups. MNCs and domestic corporates working in related sectors increasingly want to tap into local innovations and support early stage entrepreneurs.

Besides, the prospect of markets opening in India is salivated. According to FAO estimates in ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2019′ report, 194.4 million people are undernourished in India. By this measure 14.5% of the population is undernourished in India. On the other hand, it is estimated that nearly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year gets lost or wasted. 40 percent of the fruits and vegetables, and 30 percent of cereals that are produced are lost due to inefficient supply chain management and do not reach the consumer markets. The imbalance between supply and demand gives the development area of agri-tech startups and incubators.
However,agriculture business cadence is set by seasons and cash flows can get lumpy.

3.Startups is mushrooming in India.

India has the 2nd largest ecosystem of start-ups with over 20,000 start-ups and a year on year growth of 10-12%. There were 1,400 start-ups born in 2016 alone, implying that there are 3-4 start-ups born every day. Most of the start-up clusters are present in Bengaluru, the National Capital Region, and Mumbai.

In 2018, according to the Nasscom report, there were 1200 tech startups that were added in India taking the number to 7,700.

Fig.2 India innovation ecosystem map

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Source: NASSCOM, IKMResearch,2019

4.Some famous agri-tech incubators in India

Villgro, a-IDEA, ABI-ICRISAT and state agriculture university incubators are a few that are focused on agribusiness. A leader in the space is government-backed Agri-Business Incubator at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ABI-ICRISAT), which promotes commercialization of agricultural technology through public-private partnership. It has incubated 108 agritech ventures, of which 10 have made an impact – and a profit.

1)ABI-ICRISAT

ABI-ICRISAT is a part of Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP), which aims to connect with other stakeholders in the agri-innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem to foster the growth of agribusiness ventures and sharing of knowledge and information.

Fig. 3 The AIP-ICRISAT programs

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2)Villgro

Villgro is India’s oldest and foremost social enterprise incubator, that supports social startups in the sectors of agribusiness, health, education.

Villgro was founded in 2001 by PAUL BASIL with the mission of incubating early‐stage, innovative businesses and has since worked in discovering thousands of innovations and innovators, and incubated over 200 businesses.

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3)a-IDEA

a-IDEA (Association for Innovation Development of Entrepreneurship in Agriculture), is a Technology Business Incubator(TBI) hosted by ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad (ICAR-NAARM) & Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India (DST, GOI). a-IDEA has been housed in the center for agri-innovation at ICAR-NAARM for fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in agriculture in India. a-IDEA aims to help entrepreneurs ideate, incubate and accelerate their innovative early stage startups that are scalable to become competitive food and agri-business ventures through capacity building, mentoring, networking and advisory support.

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