Fabrics and garment maker Suumaya Industries Ltd, through its subsidiary Suumaya Agro Ltd, has acquired a 51 per cent stake in agri-tech start-up payAgri Innovations Pvt Ltd for an undisclosed sum.

The Theni-headquartered payAgri helps connect growers of commodities such as spices, coconut and paddy with processors and consumers.

Suumaya, which forayed into agri-commodities last year, is building agri-business model exploring multiple avenues like B2B, B2C through its retail foray. The company works in wheat and maize value chain in North, while payAgri has a strong presence in South, mainly Tamil Nadu.

Strong foothold

“The acquisition of payAgri will enable us to gain a strong foothold in the agri value chain business in India. Agri-business is witnessing strong traction. We would be differentiating our approach in the entire agri value chain and endeavour to be dominant player in the segment,” said Ushik Gala, Chairman and Managing Director of Suumaya Industries, in a statement. The capital infusion by Suumaya will help drive the growth and expansion of payAgri as a farmer-centric value chain focused hybrid bulk and retail supply chain model, Gala said.

KVM Rajkumar, Co-founder and MD (Bulk Value Chain Business), payAgri Innovations, said the investment will help the company to invest in critical farmgate and supply chain infrastructure, expand its reach and strengthen its tech platforms.

payAgri, which works with about 70 farmer producer organisations covering over 70,000 farmers, plans to expand its footprint in all the four southern states, besides targeting Gujarat and Rajasthan next year, Rajkumar said.

“We will leverage Suumaya Agro’s presence in North to expand the market for our products such as spices, mainly cardamom, pepper and turmeric, while providing them linkage for wheat and maize in the Southern markets,” Rajkumar told BusinessLine.

PayAgri would also be looking at options to expand its overseas presence in Dubai and Oman, where it is already exporting spices. “We handled about 1,200 tonnes of spices last year. With this deal, payAgri would be targeting a monthly volume of 1,000 tonnes of spices,” Rajkumar added.

Rajeev G Kaimal, Co-founder and MD (Products & FinTech Business), payAgri, said the solutions that we provide from market linkage, technology and financial linkages not only helps farmers and farmer institutions, but also other actors in the value chain. with this investment support, we aim to take this model across geographies in the coming months., he said.

Founded in 2017, payAgri has been profitable for the past three years, Rajkumar said. payAgri is funded and supported by NABARD MABIF, CIIE.CO IIM Ahmedabad and Royal Agricultural University, UK.

Suumaya Industries scrip gained 5 per cent on NSE to close at ₹533.50 on Tuesday.

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