Arya.agan Indian agri-tech company that provides warehousing facilities near farms and provides lending services to hundreds of thousands of farmers, has attracted investor interest and remained profitable even as global crop prices continue to decline in a volatile commodity market.
Investor interest has crystallized in GEF Capital Partners’ recent all-stock Series D round, totaling $81 million, of which more than 70% is seed capital and the remainder is secondary equity sales, according to the company.
Globally, Agricultural commodity prices are falling. Risks from extreme weather, input costs, trade disruptions, and shifts in biofuel policies continue to weigh on agricultural markets, the World Bank said. to caution. This leaves companies vulnerable to price fluctuations and inventory losses. However, Arya.ag says it is weathering the worst of these pressures by moving away from direct bets on commodities and using a model that it says helps absorb shocks from downward shifts in prices.
Arya.ag was founded in 2013 by former ICICI Bank executives Prasanna Rao, Anand Chandra, and Chatanathan Devarajan, around a simple idea: giving farmers more control over when and to whom they sell their crops. The Noida-based startup offers warehousing close to farms while allowing farmers to borrow against stored grains to meet their immediate cash needs and connects them to a wider pool of buyers — from agribusinesses to processors and millers — helping them avoid pressure to sell right after harvest, when prices are often weakest.
The company operates at scale, which sets Arya.ag apart from traditional lenders, banks and other agribusiness platforms. The startup says it collects and stores about $3 billion worth of grain each year — roughly 3% of the national output — and facilitates about $1.5 billion in loans annually, keeping its rate of bad loans (known as gross non-performing assets, or NPAs) below 0.5% despite the recent decline in prices.
Arya.ag lends only a portion of the value of stored grains and tracks prices closely, making margin calls when needed rather than incurring losses itself, Rao said. Borrowers can respond by repaying part of the loan or adding more grain as collateral.
“You’re not immune to the risks,” Rao told TechCrunch. “But because your loans are fully collateralized against commodities, it will never happen that prices fall by 90%. You already have a 30% margin, and with your footprint in the market, you have been able to control new workloads and defaults.”
TechCrunch event
San Francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026
In the year ending March 2025, Arya.ag generated net revenues of INR 4.5 billion (about US$50 million), with first-half revenue in the current fiscal year rising about 30% from the previous year to INR 3 billion (US$33.3 million). Profit after tax was 340 million Indian rupees (about $3.78 million) last year, and is up another 39% so far this year, Rao said.
Arya.ag says it now reaches between 850,000 and 900,000 farmers in 60% of India’s districts, and operates through a network of about 12,000 agricultural warehouses, all rented from third parties. The startup generates revenue from farmers for storage, from banks for loans for stored grains, and from buyers to facilitate crop sales through its platform.
Rao said warehousing remains the largest contributor, accounting for about 50-55% of total revenue, while finance contributes 25-30% and the rest comes from trading.
Arya.ag disburses more than INR 110 billion (about $1.2 billion) in loans to farmers every year through its platform. Of this, between 25 billion and 30 billion rupees (about $278 million-$333 million) comes from its balance sheet via its non-banking finance arm, Rao said, while the rest comes from partner banks.
Arya.ag loans carry interest rates ranging from about 12.5% to 12.8%, much lower than the 24% to 36% typically charged by commission agents, though higher than bank lending rates of 11% to 12%, Rao said. He added that banks generally do not provide loans in the small local markets close to the agricultural areas that Arya serves, where loan sizes are a small fraction of typical bank tickets, and borrowers are often located far from official branches.
The startup approves loans in less than five minutes, with payments processed almost entirely digitally, Rao said.
Technology plays a central role in how Arya.ag manages and scales risks. The startup uses artificial intelligence to assess grain quality to make lending decisions, satellite data to track pre-harvest crop stress, and sealed storage bags equipped with sensors that allow farmers to store grain for long periods even in villages without formal warehouses.
Arya.ag plans to use the fresh capital to further expand technology deployment, including expanding smart farm centers and deploying more digital tools closer to farms. Rao said part of the investment will also go towards enhancing the startup’s blockchain-based system that tracks stored grains digitally, allowing for monitoring of crops used as collateral or sold through the platform via lending and trading transactions, along with continued investment in warehousing and credit infrastructure.
With the recent capital infusion and improving profitability, Arya.ag aims to be ready to go public in the next 18 to 20 months, Rao said.
Outside India, Arya.ag plans to expand selectively through a software-based 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 the new financing round.
