Long weighed down by archaic practices such as paper-based documentation and manual management of fleets along with poor infrastructure, India’s logistics space appears to be finally ready to come out of the stone age.
The sector, still largely unorganized, has seen a few important reforms in recent years – digitization such as eway bills and FASTag, GST implementation, increased expressway coverage, and the most recent National Logistics Policy.
There’s also rising interest from VCs to tap into the logistics market: poised to grow to $380 billion by 2025. From Delhivery and Ninjacart to Shadowfox and Xpressbees, there are quite a few logistics startups addressing different needs of the sector. One such player that is trying to make an impact, especially in the agriculture sector, is Agrigator.
Founded in 2019 by Charu Chaturvedi and Udit Sangwan, the startup aims to make it simpler for agri-traders/businesses to get timely logistics services and better manage their freight.
Both founders have a fair bit of experience in the logistics-related space. Before launching Agrigator, Sangwan worked with Rivigo, which was recently acquired by Mahindra Logistics.
Chaturvedi worked with Infosys, where she worked on a project that focused on the supply management of an FMCG brand. The duo conceptualized the idea of an agri-focused logistics startup during their study at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Logistics in the agriculture space is dominated by on-spot demand, which is timebound without any demand certainty since it is operated by several small-scale traders/businesses who are largely unorganized, Sangwan told Entrackr.
Agrigator primarily focuses on the on-spot market unlike its competitors like BlackBuck or Mahindra Logistics, which are more focused on the contractual side of the business, he added.
“Catering to the on-spot market is also difficult as the demand comes mainly from remote areas. This demand fluctuates a lot, making it difficult to arrange a truck on time,” he said.
For example, a trader needs to move a certain amount of paddy to a miller, who further processes it to make rice. And the miller then either sells it to further distributors or exports. In the process, traders rely on brokers to arrange fleets. They also need to find different brokers to ship foodgrain to different states, creating multiple channels of brokers. It further varies with different kinds of food grains.
Agrigator is trying to solve this tediousness of multiple channels of brokers through its platform. For traders and millers too, timely freight management is equally important as they don’t have large warehouses and prefer to ship the freight as soon as possible.
The startup says it allows millers and traders to find a carriage in an average of 28 minutes, which otherwise typically takes 7 to 8 hours.
Since its launch, Agrigator has onboarded more than 10,000 shippers and gives access to more than 8,000 trucks. It recorded a 30% month-on-month growth — 44,000 metric tonnes in Q2 FY22 to 400,000 metric tonnes in FY23. The company posted a revenue of Rs 2.63 crore in Q2 FY23, and its current annual run rate is Rs 12.1 crore. As of now, the company is offering its services at more than 200 mandis across four states.
Agrigator is currently in process of raising fresh funds, Sangwan said without disclosing further details of the fundraise. “We will keep focusing on market penetration along with a goal of being sustainable. Our go-to-market is on-spot logistics and with this, we envision becoming a full stack platform,” he added.
