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VIDEO: Will This Y Combinator-Backed Startup’s Urban Home Farms Take Root In India?
UrbanKisaan leverages hydroponic technology for home growing kits, as well as a network of urban farms for online delivery and retail channels
Inc42 Staff
27 Aug'20
UrbanKisaan leverages hydroponic technology for home growing kits, as well as a network of urban farms for online delivery and retail channels
During the lockdown phase, the company claimed to have seen 10x growth in terms of demand for its fresh produce, compared to pre-Covid times.
Based in Hyderabad, UrbanKisaan has installed close to 30+ vertical farms and plans to expand to Bengaluru, Chennai among other cities
There’s a minor revolution underway in many of India’s biggest cities. We are talking about hydroponic farming and this soil-less method is fast becoming the answer to solving the problem of carbon footprint in food. Call it hydroponic farming, soilless farming, vertical farming or anything else — for many it is the long-awaited answer to responsible eating.
In this backdrop, agritech and hydroponics startups are quickly finding niches in various produce categories and cities. Despite their shared ethos for sustainable food production, the likes of UrbanKisaan, Barton Breeze, Hydrilla, Simply Fresh, Acqua Farms, Letcetra Agritech, BitMantis Innovations, Future Farms, Ela Sustainable Solutions, Agro2o, Junga FreshnGreen, Pindfresh are working in this field through different models and targeting different niches — from large-scale hydroponics farming in rural areas to small home farms for the cities.
Working on the philosophy of bringing farms closer to home is Hyderabad-based UrbanKisaan. With the vision of making hydroponic technology more affordable and accessible for the masses, UrbanKisaan offers home-grow kits or vertical hydroponic farms. And by creating mini-farms in cities and revitalizing farmlands with hydroponic technology, the startup also supplies fresh produce to customers through Swiggy, Zomato, Dunzo, and other retail channels as well as in the D2C model on subscription and on-demand basis.
“We are the only startup in the hydroponic landscape to have taken a hybrid approach, where we have 20,000 sq. ft. research and development facility, along with 15+ in-house scientists working on newer innovations and products,” claimed cofounder and CEO Vihari Kanukollu elaborating on how the company is looking to differentiate itself in the burgeoning hydroponic market.
However, UrbanKisaan is not alone in the game, Simply Fresh, another Hyderabad based agritech startup, also grows and supplies a line of medicinal plants and fresh produce from its greenhouses. Similarly, Chennai-based Future Farms works on hydroponic technology at a commercial level, where it designs integrated full-stack solutions for alternative farming in the country. The vibrancy of the hydroponic models and the large ground area that needs to be covered across cities and villages has made it possible for multiple startups to thrive in this space.
Needless to say, the market opportunity is huge, as ‘urban farming’ is catching up at a rapid pace globally. According to MarketsandMarkets, the global hydroponics market is expected to reach $16.6 Bn by 2025, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 11.9% from $9.5 Bn in 2020. The growth of the sector is said to be driven by the increase in population and the need for food security through alternative high-yield farming techniques, given the depletion of water across the globe.
Plus, the rise in awareness and demand for a healthier lifestyle is said to have opened doors for a plethora of possibilities for hydroponic startups to reap the benefits in the long run.
UrbanKisaan earns revenue from its multiple channels which allow it to reach all kinds of consumers — from those who want a taste of the hydroponic produce to those who want to grow it themselves. Its urban farms are strategically located next to retail stores to facilitate hyperlocal deliveries and its DIY home kits are for the latter set. Additionally, it is also supplying its technology to local farmers to reutilise farmland.
The startup was founded in 2017 by Kanukollu, Srinivas Chaganti, Dr Hari, Shiva Prasad and Dr Sai Ram, a scientist who has been instrumental in developing the nutrient solution for their state-of-the-art vertical farming technique. In March 2020, the company also raised $1.5 Mn in seed funding from Y Combinator.
Home Farming In The Times Of Covid
During the lockdown phase, the company claimed to have witnessed 10x growth in terms of demand for its fresh produce, compared to pre-Covid levels. Further, cofounder Kanukollu said that the disruption in the supply chain and consumers leveraging on the hyperlocal delivery modes, along with the change in consumer lifestyle, for the consumption of fresh, organic produce has resulted in the surge in demand.
The Covid-19 pandemic temporarily halted the movement of produce across India and highlighted the gap in the food supply chain. This allowed agritech startups such as UrbanKisaan that specialise in hydroponic farming to tap a tremendous opportunity and bring efficiency in the supply chain.
With its hyperlocal urban farms model, Kanukollu claimed UrbanKisaan is not only bringing transparency to the vegetable supply chain but also lowering the carbon footprint, reducing food waste. Most importantly, their farming technique also claimed to save 95% water, and grow the produce 30x compared to traditional farms.
Its home kits are priced anywhere between INR 9,900 and INR 19,900 with about 50+ varieties of leafy vegetables and exotic vegetables supported by these kits, including spinach, coriander, mint, basil, bok choy, lettuce, parsley, fenugreek, capsicum, tomato and kale among others.
Further, the company claimed to have semi-automated the entire process and has designed the kits in such a way that it requires limited resources to manage it. “Once installed, it requires 15 min/week of effort to take care of the plants, thereby making it seamless for consumers to grow their own fresh produce,” said Kanukollu.
A Tech Upgrade For Rural Farmers
In addition to this, UrbanKisaan also works with local farmers who own greenhouses, where it helps them in setting up vertical farms from scratch to producing and supplying fresh fruits and vegetables.
Cost-wise, the poly house or greenhouse setup would typically cost farmers anywhere between INR 35 to INR 50 Lakhs per acre, of which, the government may subsidise up to 80%. Once this is installed, which is a fixed cost, for setting up of hydroponic setup, it would cost the farmer additionally INR 50 Lakhs. But, UrbanKisaan told Inc42 that it looks to reduce this cost at INR 15 to INR 20 Lakhs.
UrbanKisaan claims to have installed close to 30+ hydroponics farms in the state, across its various offerings. In the coming days, it plans to expand into other cities, including Bengaluru, Chennai among others, along with growing its team, adding newer varieties of hydroponic seeds, fruits and vegetables, and enhancing its technology capabilities.
Kanukollu is looking at creating a centralised monitoring system through UrbanKisaan for these various hubs and farms. “We are heavily investing in artificial and machine learning tools, where once the network of the urban farm increases, we will be able to monitor and control their farms remotely and provide a real-time update to customers.”
Indian Grower Capitalizes On Market Opportunities With AI
Things are looking up for the greenhouse produce market in India. "We see an increase in demand in the Indian market, especially in many cities where we supply", says Sachin Darbarwar, founder of Simply Fresh
Sachin Darbarwar, Simply Fresh
Things are looking up for the greenhouse produce market in India. "We see an increase in demand in the Indian market, especially in many cities where we supply", says Sachin Darbarwar, founder of Simply Fresh. Last year, the grower invested $30 million in expanding the greenhouse operation, and that investment appears to be paying off.
"With more awareness on hydroponic farming and more emphasis on food safety, consumers today are selective in their buying and prefer produce, which is clean, safe, and traceable", Sachin tells us. "With the current global scenario and special focus on health and immunity, we only see this demand increasing in future."
Sachin and Shweta Darbarwar, founders of Simply Fresh
Simply Fresh not only supplies its produce to the local market, however: "We have exported our produce to the UAE, and will shortly resume our exports to countries like the UK, USA, and South East Asia."
So they look across the border, and not just when it comes to exporting their produce. "Our greenhouse structure was designed and delivered to us by Cravo, a Canadian company that specializes in retractable greenhouses", Sachin tells us. They source their seeds from various domestic and international suppliers as well, like Rijk Zwaan. "Depending on crop type we reach out to different vendors to get the best variety of seeds to have high-quality produce for our consumers."
Nutraceuticals
Under their nutraceutical vertical, Simply Fresh grows varieties of medicinal plants. "These have three times more alkaloid content than field grown plants, and serve as raw material for nutraceutical companies", Sachin explains. "The choice to grow these has been a successful move as we are able to provide medicinal plants which are traceable and with higher alkaloid content, which reduces the cost of extraction. Also, all our fresh produce and medicinal plants are safe, traceable and grown using sustainable farming techniques without any use of pesticides."
It's been a bit of a pioneering project to grow those "non-traditional" greenhouse crops: "They are very challenging as globally there are not many growers who have grown this and can share best practices/knowledge on how to grow them and how they behave without soil", Sachin tells us.
Farm in A Box
Like any modern grower, Simply Fresh also makes use of AI, having implemented it in creating data points and making decisions on data points. "For example, we use AI in forecasting yield, predicting seeding charts, space utilisation, traceability, managing crop workflows and knowledge line."
The Farm in A Box (FiAB) platform, developed by the grower, plays a central role in this strategy. "It helps us track everything from the very initial stage of sending, plant profiling, monitoring plant health and nutrient level requirement at each stage of the plant growth.
"We also use the same FiAB platform to plan and forecast the yield required for future and for our internal CRM management, to collect and process orders received from different vendors from various cities."
The company is constantly developing the platform, and in future FiAB may become available for other growers to use as well.
That's not the only thing they have in store for the future: Simply Fresh will be further expanding, growing to 40 acres on their current site in Phase 2 of the expansion.
For more information:
Simply Fresh
www.simplyfresh.co.in
Publication date: Wed 22 Jul 2020
Author: Jan Jacob Mekes
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