Arya.ag lands $81 million as volatility tests farm economics
Arya.ag, an Indian agritech company that combines near-farm storage with credit and market access for farmers, has raised an $81 million all-equity Series D round led by GEF Capital Partners. The company said more than 70% of the round was primary capital, with the remainder coming from secondary share sales.
The funding arrives as global agricultural commodity prices continue to soften, heightening the risk of inventory losses and margin pressure for businesses exposed to price swings. The World Bank has warned that extreme weather, higher input costs, trade disruptions, and shifting biofuel policies are among the factors weighing on agricultural markets. In that context, Arya.ag says it has remained profitable by avoiding direct commodity speculation and instead operating a secured-lending model tied to stored grain.
A storage-and-credit model designed to reduce distress selling
Founded in 2013 by former ICICI Bank executives Prasanna Rao, Anand Chandra, and Chattanathan Devarajan, the Noida-based company is built around a straightforward premise: farmers should have more control over when they sell and who they sell to.
To do that, Arya.ag offers storage close to farms, enables farmers to borrow against warehoused crops to meet short-term cash needs, and connects them to a wider pool of buyers—including agri-corporations, processors, and millers. The goal is to reduce pressure to sell immediately after harvest, when prices are often weakest.
Scale and risk controls: $3B in grain handled, NPAs below 0.5%
Arya.ag says its scale differentiates it from many traditional lenders and agribusiness platforms. The company reports that it aggregates and stores roughly $3 billion worth of grain annually—about 3% of India’s national output—and facilitates around $1.5 billion in loans each year.
Despite the recent drop in crop prices, the company said its gross non-performing assets (NPAs) remain below 0.5%. Prasanna Rao attributed that performance to conservative lending and active price monitoring. Arya.ag lends only a portion of the value of stored grain and uses mark-to-market tracking, triggering margin calls when collateral values fall. Borrowers can respond by repaying part of the loan or adding more grain as collateral.
“You’re not immune to risks,” Rao said in comments carried by TechCrunch, “but because your lending is completely secured against commodities,” the company believes it can manage downside shocks through built-in collateral buffers and monitoring.
Financial performance and revenue mix
In the year ended March 2025, Arya.ag said it generated net revenue of ₹4.5 billion (about $50 million). In the first half of the current financial year, revenue rose about 30% year-on-year to ₹3 billion (about $33.3 million), according to the company.
Profit after tax was ₹340 million (about $3.78 million) in the last financial year and has increased a further 39% so far this year, Rao said.
The company’s revenue is spread across three main lines: fees paid by farmers for storage, fees from banks for originating loans against stored grain, and fees from buyers for facilitating crop sales on its platform. Storage is the largest contributor at roughly 50% to 55% of revenue, finance contributes about 25% to 30%, and the remainder comes from commerce, Rao said.
Loan economics: faster approvals and lower rates than informal credit
Arya.ag says it now reaches between 850,000 and 900,000 farmers across about 60% of India’s districts, operating through a network of roughly 12,000 agricultural warehouses leased from third parties.
Across its platform, Arya.ag disburses more than ₹110 billion (about $1.2 billion) in loans to farmers each year. Of that, between ₹25 billion and ₹30 billion (about $278 million to $333 million) is lent from its own balance sheet via its non-banking finance arm, while the remainder is originated for partner banks, according to Rao.
Loan interest rates are typically around 12.5% to 12.8%, the company said—below the 24% to 36% often charged by commission agents in informal channels, though slightly above typical bank rates of around 11% to 12%. Rao argued that banks frequently do not serve smaller local markets close to farms, where ticket sizes are smaller and borrowers may be far from formal branches. The company said it can approve loans in under five minutes, with disbursement handled largely through digital workflows.
Technology roadmap and IPO timeline
Technology is central to how Arya.ag manages risk and operates at scale. The company says it uses AI to assess grain quality for lending decisions, satellite data to monitor crop stress ahead of harvest, and airtight, sensor-enabled storage bags to extend safe storage even in villages without formal warehousing.
The new capital will be used to expand these deployments, including scaling smart farm centers, pushing more digital tools closer to farms, and strengthening a blockchain-based system that digitally tracks stored grain across lending and trade transactions. The company also plans continued investment in storage and credit infrastructure.
With fresh funding and improving profitability, Prasanna Rao said Arya.ag is targeting IPO readiness in the next 18 to 20 months. Beyond India, the company plans selective international expansion through a software-led approach, noting that some of its technology is already deployed in parts of Southeast Asia and Africa.
Investment bank Avendus advised Arya.ag on the Series D round.
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