AquaExchange, a full-stack, tech-driven platform serving India’s multi-billion-dollar shrimp & fish ecosystem, has secured $3 million in pre-Series A funding from Endiya Partners and Accion Venture Lab, with participation from existing investors.
The company will deploy the capital in strengthening its technology and e-commerce operations and expanding its farm automation footprint to over 100,000 acres of farms by FY23 ending March 2023.
Started in 2020, AquaExchange aims to improve farmer productivity and livelihoods by ushering in AquaCulture 4.0 into India.
The startup operates across the value chain through a) a fintech-enabled e-commerce platform (which offers high-quality inputs at the best prices directly from manufacturers; b) a unique ‘hardware-as-a-service’ model for farm automation (smart, reliable and easy-to-deploy IoT devices under the brand name NextAqua on subscription basis for automated feeding and 24×7 farm monitoring.
In addition, it also provides a harvest-as-a-service market linkage platform, which facilitates harvests at the farm gate with transparent pricing and assured spot payments to the smallholder farmers.
AquaExchange also offers PowerMon, a tech that empowers farmers with complete farm power monitoring and aeration control through the convenience of a mobile app, and AquaBot, a moving auto-feeder that allows farmers to efficiently feed their ponds while maintaining good feed conversion ratios (FCRs).
Pavan Kosaraju, founder of AquaExchange, said, “Our IoT devices and automatic feeders have been installed at scale and are helping farmers with higher reliability/efficiencies in terms of aeration and feed management, while at the same time providing RoIs within the first quarter of usage. We believe that future aquaculture farmers should be equipped with the right data at the right time to ensure higher crop successes and also increase farming productivity. This in turn will help the other industry players such as banking, financial services, and insurance companies to work with farmers and, in the process, unlock industry-wide efficiencies.”
According to market reports the global shrimp and fish markets are estimated to grow to $400 billion by 2027. This market is at the threshold of a massive change in terms of technology adoption for efficient farming. Companies like AquaExchange are at the forefront in terms of ushering in AquaCulture 4.0 which is needed to facilitate such productivity increases.