An Indian agritech standout has pulled off an unusual feat in a downcycle: Arya Ag, which finances farmers and operates warehouses to store their production, has received fresh investor backing while maintaining a bottom line in the black even as global crop prices are retreating.
The company also announced an all-equity Series D round of $81 million led by GEF Capital Partners, with more than 70% of the capital raised in primary and the rest through secondary share sales.
The bet goes against the grain of the broader commodities mood music. Global food benchmarks have come off recent highs, and the World Bank has flagged weather shocks, changing biofuel policies, expensive inputs and trade friction as long-term risks. FAO’s food price indices also indicate cereals well below their peaks. Yet Arya Ag’s storage-and-credit approach is intended to tamp down price volatility and transform inventory management into steady, fee-based income.
A Model Designed to Soften Price Declines
Founded by former bankers, Arya Ag pivots around a simple yet powerful lever: let farmers take control over timing and counterparties. Through putting storage near the farm and allowing borrowers to draw working capital against their warehoused grain, the platform eliminates “harvest flush” discounting as well as opens up access to a wider range of buyers – from processors to millers and agri-corporates.
Importantly, the company has no directional commodity exposure. It advances only a fraction of the stored value, constantly watches prices and issues margin calls if the collateral cushion shrinks. That efficiency is evident in the numbers: Arya Ag says that it aggregates and stores about $3 billion of grain annually, which allows for around $1.5 billion worth of loans to be made at a time, while holding gross NPAs below 0.5%, even in the presence of a softer pricing environment.
Scale and a Diversified Revenue Engine at National Scale
Operating in some 60% of the country’s districts, Arya Ag serves between 850,000 and 900,000 farmers with a network of roughly 12,000 leased warehouses. The platform makes money in three lines: storage, finance and trade. Storage continues to be the anchor at 50–55% of revenue, finance is at 25–30%, and trade facilitation takes care of the rest.
Scale is converted into resilient unit economics. Net revenue was about ₹4.5 billion (about $50 million) in the last fiscal year, and profit after tax was approximately ₹340 million (around $3.78 million). So far in the current fiscal period, revenue is up about 30% year over year and profit has risen by 39%, according to the company.
Credit When Banks Are Scarce in Rural Markets
Arya Ag’s credit rail dispenses more than ₹110 billion (about $1.2 billion) to farmers every year. Out of this, ₹25–30 billion is funded from the company’s balance sheet (the firm has a non-banking finance arm) while the rest is originated for partner banks. Loan approvals take seconds – generally less than five minutes – and the money is mostly distributed online.
Pricing is located somewhere between formal and informal channels: it offers interest rates of some 12.5–12.8%, less than the 24–36% rates imposed by commission agents, but slightly more than those typically offered by banks at around 11–12%. Banks typically do not serve small, local markets near farms, where ticket sizes are small and borrowers are distant from branches. Arya Ag fills in the gap by securing loans on verified, traceable grain collateral held within its network.
Technology and the Destination for New Capital
Technology underpins the model. Arya Ag relies on artificial intelligence to judge grain quality in minutes, satellite imagery to track crop stress pre-harvest and airtight bags that are fitted with sensors to make them last longer even in remote villages without formal warehouses. A ledger on blockchain allows inventory tracking in storage, lending and trades, curbing disputes and leakages along the value chain.
The new money will scale up those deployments: more smart farm centers; deeper digitization farther down the supply chain, nearer to the farmgate; and greater shoring up of the grain tracking ledger. The company will continue to invest in storage and credit infrastructure to reduce turnaround times and increase the coverage, he said. The company’s management says it is aiming for near-term IPO readiness and selectively continuing its software-led model into bits of Southeast Asia and Africa. The company has more than 1,200 employees and was advised by Avendus on the fundraise.
Why Investors Are Leaning In Despite Lower Prices
For investors, Arya Ag is a way to bet on agriculture without the whipsawing movements of commodity prices. Storage fees are annuity-like income, financing yields have real collateral with capital and active risk management behind it, and the marketplace business adds take-rate upside as liquidity grows. Within the context of an environment both flagged by the World Bank and FAO for continuing risks, a model that monetizes logistics, data and credit – rather than price movement – is striking.
All of which is to say that while crop prices are down, Arya Ag’s mix of warehouses + tech-enabled underwriting + last-mile distribution is attracting capital exactly because it has been constructed purposefully to survive a downcycle and compound in the next upswing.
