India currently hosts more than 500+ startups in the Agri Tech sector. And with the percentage of people working in the sector, it remains the main sector of employment in the country.

As per a report, about 41.49% of the workforce in India was employed in agriculture in 2020. Though the sector is huge, it has been facing various issues for the past several years.

With a shortage of labour in the agriculture sector and issues in sourcing machinery from agents, the people in the agriculture sector, especially the farmers, are facing a lot of issues.

Today’s startup story is about an agritech startup from Hyderabad that enables farmers to improve their ROI by providing them with a technology-enabled platform and has become a one-stop solution for farmers.

Startup Story: Ujjay | A One-Stop Solution For Farmers

Ujjay Founder

Started by Dashmanth Reddy, Mithil Gandhi, and Nitin Razdan in 2016, Ujjay is a one-stop solution for farmers that completes all their farming needs.

Ujjay enables farmers to improve their ROI by providing them with a technology-enabled platform complemented by a physical presence. The agritech startup is one of the few companies providing end-to-end solutions to the farming community in India.

[Read: Everything You Want To Know About Agri Tech Ecosystem]

How Ujjay Started?

It all began between 2015 and 2016 when the trio began spending time in rural Telangana to understand the real challenges of farmers.

After researching, they realised the farming community was battling labour shortage, and they also find it tough to source machinery from agents.

So, to help farmers access labour and machinery on time to make farming viable for them, the co-founders came up with the idea of building a platform.

And in late 2016. Dashmanth Reddy, Mithil Gandhi, and Nitin Razdan created a technology platform that provides farmers with a one-stop solution for all their farming needs.

USP Of Ujjay

The Hyderabad-based startup provides FaaS (farming as a service) to help farmers. Following a phygital way (Physical+ digital), Ujjay offers crop advisory, product (tractors and tillers) services, and mechanisation services to farmers.

With Ujjay, farmers get access to pre-harvest services with less than Rs 150 per month. And to get in touch with the startup, farmers can use mobile app/call centre and partner networks, which act as their last-mile service partners.

Present Situation Of Ujjay

Started with an investment of just Rs 25 lakh, the bootstrapped startup currently operates in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra.

With 25,000 farmers in their service network, the founders claim that their top line reached Rs 2.8 crore in FY20.

Future Plans Of Ujjay

By 2025, Ujjay plans on increasing its offerings and aims to bring its services to five million farmers.

The agritech startup also plans on providing farmers with access to financial services, along with its existing offerings.

Competing with agritech startups like BigHaat, PEAT and DeHaat, the startup also plans to raise its first round of funding in the next 18 months.

Ujjay has expansion plans in crop-specific geographies in southern India and Maharashtra. Also, the startup wants to increase its financial services to farmers in association with an NBFC.

[Read: Leveraging Technology, Bhopal-Based Startup ‘PhysiQure’ Is Disrupting The Physiotherapy Sector]