Global crop prices are sliding, but Indian agritech startup Arya.ag is moving in the opposite direction — raising fresh capital, growing revenue and staying firmly in the black.
The Noida-based company has closed an all‑equity Series D round of $81 million from GEF Capital Partners. More than 70% of that is primary capital, with the remainder secondary share sales, the company told TechCrunch.
Profits in a downcycle
Agricultural commodity prices are under pressure worldwide. The World Bank has warned that extreme weather, higher input costs, trade disruptions and biofuel policy shifts are all weighing on markets, leaving businesses exposed to price swings and inventory losses.
Arya.ag says it is sidestepping the worst of that volatility by avoiding outright bets on crop prices and instead focusing on fully secured, collateral‑backed lending.
“You’re not immune to risks,” co‑founder and CEO Prasanna Rao told TechCrunch. “But because your lending is completely secured against commodities, it will never happen that the prices will fall by 90%. You already have a margin of 30%, and with your mark to market, you’ve been able to control your NPAs and defaults.”
The numbers back that up. In the year ended March 2025, Arya.ag generated net revenue of ₹4.5 billion (around $50 million). In the first half of the current financial year, revenue rose about 30% year‑on‑year to ₹3 billion ($33.3 million). Profit after tax came in at ₹340 million (about $3.78 million) last year and has grown a further 39% so far this year, according to Rao.
The company says it keeps its gross non‑performing assets below 0.5% even after the latest slide in crop prices.
Warehouse‑first fintech
Founded in 2013 by former ICICI Bank executives Prasanna Rao, Anand Chandra and Chattanathan Devarajan, Arya.ag is built around a simple pitch to farmers: don’t be forced to sell at harvest‑time lows.
The startup operates about 12,000 leased agricultural warehouses located close to farms. Farmers can store grain locally, borrow against that inventory to meet immediate cash needs, and then sell later via Arya.ag’s marketplace to a wider set of buyers — from large agri‑corporates to processors and millers.
Arya.ag says it aggregates and stores around $3 billion worth of grain every year, roughly 3% of India’s national output. On top of that, it facilitates about $1.5 billion in loans annually. More than ₹110 billion (about $1.2 billion) in loans are disbursed to farmers each year through its platform, with ₹25–30 billion (roughly $278–333 million) coming from Arya.ag’s own non‑banking finance arm and the rest originated for partner banks.
The startup lends only a portion of the value of the grain in storage and tracks prices closely, triggering margin calls when markets move. Borrowers can either repay part of the loan or add more grain as collateral, limiting the chance that Arya.ag has to take a hit itself.
Interest rates on Arya.ag loans sit around 12.5% to 12.8% — significantly lower than the 24% to 36% typically charged by commission agents, though still above standard bank lending rates of roughly 11% to 12%. Rao argued that most banks simply do not serve the small, hyperlocal markets where Arya.ag operates, and where ticket sizes are far below typical bank loans. The startup says it can approve loans in under five minutes, with disbursements handled almost entirely digitally.
Tech as a risk engine
Technology is at the center of how Arya.ag manages risk and scale.
The company uses AI to assess grain quality for lending, satellite imagery to monitor crop stress ahead of harvest, and airtight, sensor‑enabled storage bags that let farmers store grain for extended periods even in villages without formal warehouses.
It also runs a blockchain‑based system that digitally tracks grain used as collateral or traded on its platform, following inventory across both lending and commerce transactions.
With the new capital, Arya.ag plans to roll out more of these tools closer to farms, expand its smart farm centers, strengthen the blockchain tracking layer and continue investing in storage and credit infrastructure.
IPO ambitions and selective expansion
Arya.ag says it now reaches between 850,000 and 900,000 farmers across about 60% of India’s districts and employs more than 1,200 full‑time staff.
Rao told TechCrunch the company is targeting IPO‑readiness in the next 18 to 20 months, off the back of growing profitability and the latest capital infusion.
Beyond India, Arya.ag plans a software‑led expansion model. Some of its technology is already deployed in parts of Southeast Asia and Africa, with the company looking to export its warehouse‑plus‑fintech playbook into other fragmented, under‑served agricultural markets.
Investment bank Avendus advised Arya.ag on the Series D round.
