PayAgri: Building India's Seed-to-Fork Revolution
- Riddhi Agnihotri
- Jul 23
- 2 min read
How two founders are digitizing agriculture to empower 70,000 farmers and eliminate middlemen
Introduction to PayAgri
When KVM Rajkumar and Rajeev G Kaimal founded PayAgri in 2017, they saw a fundamental problem: India's farmers were trapped in an inefficient web of intermediaries that ate into their profits while consumers paid premium prices for basic commodities.
Their solution wasn't just another agritech app—it was a comprehensive "seed-to-fork" ecosystem called FarmConnect. The platform does something revolutionary: it connects farmers directly with buyers while providing the technology, market intelligence, and financial services needed to make those connections work.
The Revolutionary Integrated Approach
PayAgri's genius lies in integration. Their FarmConnect platform combines market linkage with digital tools for soil analysis, precision farming, and performance tracking. But perhaps most importantly, they've cracked the financial puzzle by facilitating streamlined payments and credit access through partnerships with institutions like NABARD and Suumaya Industries.
When Mumbai-based Suumaya Industries acquired a 51% stake in 2021, it wasn't just an investment—it was validation of PayAgri's model. The partnership enabled rapid scaling of farm-gate procurement hubs and bulk processing capabilities, focusing on spices, grains, coconut, and other value-added commodities.
The Impact Numbers
Today, PayAgri serves 70 FPOs (Farmer Producer Organizations) and 70,000 farmers with over 210 products listed on their platform. But the real success isn't just in scale—it's in the transformation. By eliminating intermediaries, they're ensuring fair prices for farmers while providing traceability and quality assurance for buyers.
The platform's data-driven approach empowers farmers with insights that were previously available only to large agribusinesses. From soil health to market prices, farmers now have access to information that helps them make better decisions about what to grow, when to sell, and how to optimize their yields.
PayAgri proves that technology can transform traditional industries when it addresses real operational challenges. By building an integrated ecosystem that serves farmers, processors, and consumers, they're not just digitizing agriculture—they're democratizing it.
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