Indian agritech company Arya.ag, which provides storage facilities close to farms and financing services to hundreds of thousands of farmers, has attracted investor interest and remains profitable even as global crop prices continue to fall in volatile commodity markets.
The company said investor interest was embodied in the latest all-stock Series D round with GEF Capital Partners, totaling $81 million, of which more than 70% was primary capital and the remainder was secondary equity sales.
Agricultural product prices are falling worldwide. The World Bank warned that risks from extreme weather events, input costs, trade disruptions and shifts in biofuels policies continue to weigh on agricultural markets. This exposes companies to price fluctuations and inventory losses. Nevertheless, Arya.ag says it is weathering the worst by avoiding direct bets on commodities and using a model that it claims helps absorb the shock of falling prices.
Founded in 2013 by former ICICI Bank executives Prasanna Rao, Anand Chandra and Chattanathan Devarajan, Arya.ag is built on the simple idea of giving farmers more control over when and to whom they sell their crops. The Noida-based startup provides warehouses close to farms while also allowing farmers to borrow against warehoused grain to meet their immediate cash needs, connecting them with a wider range of buyers, from agricultural corporations to processors and millers, and avoiding the immediate post-harvest sales pressure when prices often fall the most.
The company operates on a large scale, which sets Arya.ag apart from traditional financiers, banks, and other agribusiness platforms. The company said it centrally stores approximately $3 billion worth of grain each year (about 3% of national output) and facilitates approximately $1.5 billion in loans annually, while maintaining its non-performing loan ratio (known as gross non-performing assets (NPA)) below 0.5% despite recent price declines.
Arya.ag lends out only a portion of the value of its stored grain, closely tracks prices, and makes margin calls when necessary rather than incurring losses itself, Rao said. Borrowers can respond by repaying part of the loan or adding grain as collateral.
“It’s not risk-free,” Rao told TechCrunch. “But a 90% drop in price will never happen because your loan is fully collateralized against the commodity. You already have a 30% margin and are able to control NPAs and defaults through mark-to-market.”
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In the year ended March 2025, Arya.ag generated net revenue of 4.5 billion rupees (approximately $50 million), with revenue in the first half of the current fiscal year increasing by approximately 30% year-on-year to 3 billion rupees ($33.3 million). Rao said the company’s after-tax profit was 340 million rupees (about $3.78 million) last year, which has increased by another 39% so far this year.
According to Arya.ag, the company currently serves 850,000 to 900,000 farmers in 60% of India’s districts, operating through a network of about 12,000 agricultural warehouses, all leased from third parties. The startup generates revenue by originating loans from farmers for storage and from banks for stored grain, and from buyers by promoting the sale of their crops through the platform.
Rao said storage remains the largest contributor, accounting for about 50-55% of total revenue, while finance accounts for 25-30% and the rest comes from commerce.
Arya.ag disburses over 110 billion rupees (approximately $1.2 billion) in loans to farmers every year through its platform. Of this amount, 25 billion to 30 billion rupees (about $278 million to $333 million) is taken out of the company’s own balance sheet through the non-banking financial sector, and the rest goes to partner banks, Rao said.
Arya.ag’s loan interest rates are around 12.5% to 12.8%, much lower than the 24% to 36% typically charged by commission agencies, but higher than bank loan rates of around 11% to 12%, Rao said. He added that banks generally do not lend in smaller, local markets near the agricultural areas that Aria serves, where loans are a fraction of the size of a typical bank ticket and where borrowers are often located far from a formal branch.
Rao said the startup approves loans within five minutes and payments are processed almost entirely digitally.
Technology plays a central role in how Arya.ag manages risk and scale. The startup uses AI to assess grain quality for lending decisions, satellite data to track pre-harvest crop stress, and airtight sensor-enabled storage bags that allow farmers to store grain for long periods in villages without formal warehouses.
Arya.ag plans to use the new capital to further expand its technology deployment, including expanding its Smart Farm Center and bringing more digital tools closer to the farm. Rao said part of the investment will also go toward strengthening the startup’s blockchain-based system that digitally tracks stored grain, allowing it to monitor crops used as collateral and sold through the platform across loan and trade transactions, alongside continued investment in storage and credit infrastructure.
With the latest capital infusion and improved profitability, Arya.ag aims to be ready for an IPO within the next 18-20 months, Rao said.
Beyond India, Arya.ag plans to expand selectively through a software-driven model, with some of its technology already deployed in parts of Southeast Asia and Africa. The startup has more than 1,200 full-time employees.
Avendus advised Arya.ag on its new financial round.
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