SBI Foundation, under its flagship SBIF LEAP (Livelihood and Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program), unveiled the ‘Innovators for Bharat’ initiative last year, which collaborates with high-impact incubators providing support to start-ups working to address the most pressing development challenges in the country.
Partnering with Villgro, one of India’s foremost social enterprise incubators, in September 2023, the initiative introduced the Agri-tech Cohort under Innovators for Bharat. The goal of this Cohort is to identify and support Startups working on cutting-edge solutions to improve agricultural productivity, build climate resilience and sustainability for the agriculture sector in India, taking their innovations to the ground.
Through their support for 9 startups, SBI Foundation and Villgro aim to surpass the goal of benefiting 10,000 farmers by not only enhancing livelihoods and incomes, but also bringing 60,000 acres of land under sustainable cultivation and preventing 15,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
The initiative is supporting these startups addressing crucial points across the agriculture value chain:
- Bharat Rohan: Utilizes drone-based hyperspectral imagery to offer farm advisory, optimizing soil health, yields, and profitability.
- RAAV Techlabs: Offers near-infrared technology devices for objective testing of quality parameters in produce, thereby reducing food losses.
- Navork Innovations: Tackles post-harvest losses with a plant extract-based formulation that extends the shelf life of highly perishable produce like mushrooms and bananas.
- Marut Drones: Provides drones and software for multiple farming services, including spraying, direct seeding, crop health monitoring, and advisory.
- GreyMatter (Upaj): Supplies farmers with high-quality inputs and affordable credit through a ‘Community Commerce and Financing Model’ integrating microfinance and services across the agriculture value chain.
- Carbon Masters: Implements a circular economy solution converting organic waste into Bio-CNG and organic fertilizers.
- Raheja Solar: Develops renewable energy-based solar dryers to reduce post-harvest losses and processes and sells its own dried food using produce bought back from farmers.
- Ekosight: Provides a portable soil testing device for assessing soil quality and offering accurate advice on fertilizer application and precision farming.
- Pasidi Panta: Develops an end-to-end commodity value chain service for farmers, focusing on residue-free chili production using Integrated Pest Management.
Support provided to these companies includes strategic mentoring, field pilot opportunities, rural distribution access, climate impact evaluation guidance, and technical assistance for carbon projects. Additionally, the program helps startups develop financially stable models, secure debt financing, and raise awareness about their innovations.
Shri Sanjay Prakash, Managing Director, SBI Foundation, shared his insights on the move saying, “This programme serves to reinforce our commitment to strengthening India's agriculture sector - a bedrock of the nation's heritage and economy. This year's Independence Day echoes the spirit of 'Viksit Bharat' - a vision of a progressive, inclusive and empowered India. In light of this, Innovators for Bharat, seeks to harness the entrepreneurial spirit of our country's startups. Beyond financial support, we will provide the selected startups access to our network of banking experts for mentorship, Civil Society Organizations and other key stakeholders.”
“This programme was launched with a strong focus on climate-resilience and sustainability. These are both imperative to safeguard the country’s agriculture sector from increasingly variable weather patterns stemming from climate change. Combining Villgro and SBI Foundation’s synergies has allowed us to onboard unique start-ups with innovative technologies addressing challenges across the agricultural value chain. We are excited to gear up our efforts in supporting these startups as we enter the second phase of the programme and move closer to our goal of building climate resilience while impacting 10,000 farmers, ” adds Srinivas Ramanujam, CEO, Villgro.
In the second leg of this program, SBI Foundation and Villgro will be supporting another 5 enterprises with Grant capital with a view to unlocking innovative finance through their partners in the financial ecosystem. Stay tuned for more.
