Arya.ag eyes to double profit and increase revenue by 70% to ₹500 crore in FY24

Agri-tech platform Arya.ag is expecting to more than double its profit and grow the topline by around 70 per cent to ₹500 crore this fiscal as it focuses more on sales along with expansion of its customer base.

Arya.ag claims to be the largest and the only profitable agri-tech platform focused on foodgrain storage and sale.

The Noida-based start-up founded in 2013 by Prasanna Rao, Anand Chandra and Chattanathan Devarajan and backed by funds like Lightrock, Accion Quona Capital, Asia Impact Fund and Omnivore Partners, has a revenue of ₹298 crore, from which it earned ₹16 crore of net income.

These funds collectively own 60 per cent of the company with a combined investment of $65 million. The company did not offer a break-up of either their individual holding or their investment.

It also has debt investors like Rabo Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, from whom it has borrowed ₹980 crore so far.

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"This year we see the numbers hitting ₹500 crore in revenue and the net profit more than doubling to ₹35 crore," Prasanna Rao told PTI.

Growth in sales

Rao's optimism comes from growing e-commerce/sale of grains through the platform and the fee for its services to farmers.

Currently, most of its revenue comes from storage/warehouse fees. But Rao expects the fee from selling grain on its platform should be a bigger revenue model going forward. Commission on sales stood at ₹40 crore in FY23 and he expects this to cross ₹100 crore this fiscal.

He expects the value of grain sold on its platform to double from ₹3,000 crore in FY23 to at last ₹6,000 crore this fiscal. “Already during the first five months of the current fiscal, sale value crossed ₹2,000 crore,” Rao said.

Last year, the platform's main business of storage had clocked ₹20,000 crore in aggregate value which he expects to touch ₹27,000-28,000 crore this fiscal.

Arya serves over 660 FPOs (farmer producer organisations) which have more than 7 lakh individuals, farmers as members from across 21 states and 450 districts. “The number of farmers has already jumped by 80,000 this fiscal so far,” he said.

The platform deals primarily in wheat, paddy, soybeans, mustard and pulses. It also deals in cotton, spices, pepper, clove, cardamom, and chillies.

Rao claims to offer farmers using the platform benefits in the range of 10-30 per cent. It also offers loans to FPOs as working capital at an interest rate of 12.5 per cent. Its loan book was close to ₹1,000 crore in FY23, which was ₹300 crore in the preceding fiscal. He expects the loan book to jump at least 80 per cent to ₹1,800 crore by March next year.

It has partnerships with 27 banks which have collectively disbursed about ₹9,000 crore in FY23 to farmers, FPOs, SME processors and other smaller agri stakeholders. The company earned ₹120 crore from its financing activities, which include its own interest income and finance facilitation fee from banks covering collateral management fee.

Arya, which competes with NCML, NHBC Staragri, Farmart, Bijak, Ergos, Dehaat, Ninjacart, Waycool, and Samunnati, among others, manages warehouses spanning over 100 million square feet.

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