AGROSTAR

Shardul and Sitanshu Sheth founded AgroStar in Pune in 2013 to fix a supply chain that seemed designed to work against farmers. The local agri-input dealer is often a farmer's only option for seeds or pesticides, and that position is easy to abuse.

Counterfeit products are common, prices are opaque, and advice often comes from the person who profits from selling you more product rather than the right one.

AgroStar did not start as an app. It began as a missed-call service: a farmer gave a missed call to a number and AgroStar's agronomists called back with advice, and could take an order for inputs.

Smartphones came later. The advice built trust, and the trust turned into sales.

They started in western India and spent years winning over people who had been burned by new promises before.

AgroStar makes most of its money selling agricultural inputs, seeds, crop protection, fertilizer and tools, to farmers through its app, its call centre and its partner stores. The margin on those sales is the core revenue.

Because it sources from established manufacturers and checks quality, it can compete on trust rather than just price.

The advisory layer is both a product and an acquisition channel. Farmers ask about crop diseases, pests and what to buy, and AgroStar's agronomists and software answer.

That builds trust, which turns into purchases. It is a classic advice-to-commerce flywheel.

Since acquiring INI Farms in 2022, AgroStar also earns money on the other end, buying and selling farmers' fruit and vegetables into domestic and export markets. Revenue was Rs 747 crore in FY24, with a loss of Rs 327 crore.

The AgroStar app is the flagship. It works in several Indian languages and gives farmers crop advice, disease diagnosis from photos, and a store for seeds, crop protection, fertilizer and tools.

The agronomy advisory centre is the human side. Farmers can call AgroStar's agronomists for help, which is how the company started in 2013.

The retail network adds physical reach. AgroStar works with thousands of partner and franchise stores across rural India so farmers can pick up inputs locally.

Since buying INI Farms in 2022, it also helps farmers sell produce such as pomegranates and bananas to domestic buyers and export retailers.

AgroStar's growth strategy is built on trust. In a sector where farmers have been burned by fake products and bad advice, a reputation for reliability is the most valuable asset.

It invested in agronomy advice before asking for a sale, and in quality control on what it sells.

After the 2021 Series D it went omnichannel, adding a large network of partner stores so farmers who do not want to buy on an app can still reach it. In 2022 it bought INI Farms, a fruit and vegetable exporter, to help farmers sell their harvest, not just buy inputs.

Expansion across Indian states needs local tailoring for different crops, pests and languages, which is why it has grown state by state from its base in western India. The 2025 round from Just Climate pushes it toward climate-smart farming.

AgroStar operates in a market where the incumbents are not companies — they are entrenched relationships between local dealers and farmers that have existed for generations. Displacing a local dealer is not just a product problem.

It's a trust and habit problem. Even when AgroStar's products are demonstrably better and cheaper, the farmer may still walk to the local dealer because he has known him for 20 years and can get informal credit from him.

Logistics is the other hard problem. Rural India's last-mile delivery infrastructure is improving but remains unreliable.

Getting a package of pesticide to a farm in Rajasthan on time — when the pest outbreak is happening now and the farmer needed it yesterday — requires logistics capability that Amazon-level investment has not yet fully solved in India's most remote areas.

Competition from DeHaat, Ninjacart, and other well-funded Indian agtech startups means the market is getting more crowded. And larger players — including big agri-input companies and India's agricultural cooperatives — have been building their own direct-to-farmer programs, bringing resources that even well-funded startups cannot easily match.

IDG Ventures India (now Chiratae Ventures) and Aavishkaar backed the $3.7 million Series A in 2015. Accel led the $10 million Series B in 2017, and Bertelsmann India Investments led the $27 million Series C in 2019.

The $70 million Series D in December 2021 came from Evolvence, Schroders Capital, Hero Enterprise and CDC, with Rabo Frontier Ventures and the earlier backers joining. Climate investor Just Climate led a $30 million Series E in 2025 at a valuation of about $250 million, flat on 2022.

Smaller extension rounds take the total to roughly $150 million. After all that dilution, the founders own under 8% combined.