Agri-tech startup Gramophone raises ₹24 crore from InfoEdge, others

Agriculture tech startup Gramophone today said that it has raised ₹24 crore from existing investor InfoEdge, which owns Naukri.com, and impact investors Asha Impact and Better Capital, among others.

Gramophone provides actionable agronomic insights coupled with last mile delivery of quality agriculture inputs to farmers, through a smartphone app and a call center.

The startup was founded in 2016 by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) graduates Tauseef Ahmad Khan, Nishant Vats Mahatre, Harshit Gupta and Ashish Ranjan Singh. The startup claims its last mile delivery model has helped them serve over 2.5 lakh farmers in the remotest villages across central India. It will use the funds to expand across several states.

Tauseef Khan, co-founder & CEO of Gramophone, said, “Gramophone is on a mission to create a future of farming that puts ‘Farmers First’ by democratizing knowledge, building transparency in transactions, and creating a connected ecosystem for farmers’ business. This investment will enable us to invest aggressively on product, data science and scale operations across geographies.”

Agri-tech startups have seen rising investor interest in India, with startups at an early stage as well as growth stage looking to solve problems including supply chain and retailing.

US-based Tiger Global Management led a $90 million round in Ninjacart, a grocery supply chain platform in May this year, while DeHaat, an online marketplace for farm products and services, said it has raised ₹30 crore in a funding round led by impact investor Omnivore.