AgroStar – India’s largest digital farmer network and Agri-inputs platform has acquired Mumbai-based INI Farms Pvt Ltd – the largest exporters of F&V crops like bananas and pomegranates from India. The company’s ‘Kimaye’ brand of products are available in some of the largest retail chains spread across 35 countries in the world. AgroStar has acquired 100% of INI Farms through a combination of cash and stock. Through this acquisition, AgroStar will provide additional value to its large network of farmers by making their produce available to quality conscious consumers around the globe. This acquisition provides a scaled presence to AgroStar in the USD 300B+ agri output market.
INI Farms was founded in 2009, by Pankaj and Purnima Khandelwal. Over the years, they have built a business with large-scale pan-India operations spanning contract farming, aggregation, supply chain management and are serving food retailers globally. The company handles over 50,000 tons of fruits annually. Through its program ‘Fruit Route’ it provides farm-to-fork traceability for its produce. INI Farms works closely with its network of farmers enabling them to grow crops that meet global standards in quality and safety resulting in the farmer earning upto 50% higher returns.
Following this acquisition, AgroStar will provide market linkage solutions for the domestic and export markets to its large network of farmers. In addition, INI Farms’ customer base of global retailers will get access to a wider basket of F&V products. AgroStar will also provide access to great quality inputs, tech based farm interventions and solutions designed to increase yields to INI Farms’ network of farmers across multiple states. Pankaj and Purnima along with the entire INI Farms team will continue or to operate and scale the’ Kimaye’ brand across more countries and many more crops.
Speaking on the acquisition, Shardul Sheth, Co-Founder, and CEO, AgroStar said, “AgroStar today is India’s largest digital network of farmers, helping them grow better by providing great content, real time advisory and superior quality agri Inputs. As we look to provide additional value to our network of farmers, we are delighted to partner with Pankaj and Purnima. Their efforts over the years have put the Indian Farmer on the world map by making great quality Indian fruits available around the world. ‘Kimaye’ is now a well known global consumer brand out of India, synonymous with great quality and safety! This acquisition will enable us to rapidly scale our business into the domestic and international food supply chains.
Pankaj Khandelwal, Chairman & Managing Director, INI Farms said, “The agriculture story in India is poised for a multi-fold growth. We believe that large platforms providing end-to-end services to the farmers from advisory and inputs to output offtake is going to drive this transformation. AgroStar partnership provides us with a great opportunity to grow multi-fold with expansion into the entire agriculture output business and leveraging our strong supply chain capabilities. AgroStar’s mission of ensuring better farmer incomes through improved productivity and quality are the cornerstones of INI Farms’ philosophy as well. With AgroStar serving farmers across a diverse range of crops, INI Farms will have access to a much wider and diverse crop base to offer to our global customers.”
Vineet Rai, Founder, and Chairman of, Aavishkaar Group said, “Aavishkaar has been the first institutional investor in both the organisations and I am glad that some of the best entrepreneurs in agri-tech are coming together to solve complex problems at scale. Both organisations are leaders in transforming rural economies and their joining hands augur well for Indian farmers getting comprehensive solutions under one platform.”
Speaking on the INI acquisition, Prashanth Prakash, Founding Partner, Accel India said, “This is a great opportunity for two companies with a similar DNA to expand their business and cater to the growing demands of the farming communities as well as consumers. We are very optimistic that working together as one entity will accelerate their mission to create an impact in the Indian agritech sector. ”
Ronnie Screwvala, Founder, Unilazer Ventures said, “Next 10 years provides us with a great opportunity to build large scale agri-tech enterprises with purpose: for farmers, for consumers, and for the environment. The AgroStar-INI Farms combine will create massive opportunities to double farmers income, provide consumers with high quality safe food and build efficient supply chains”
The Raine Group acted as financial advisor to AgroStar.
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