Bengaluru-based Fyllo is a patented agriscience platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to study plants’ precise needs in real-time and give farmers timely guidance.
Modern artificial intelligence and conventional farming are frequently viewed as being at odds with one another because the former typically relies on antiquated techniques while the latter makes use of the most cutting-edge and cutting-edge technologies currently available to mankind.
However, don’t you think that opposites frequently draw each other?
The two are being considered for marriage by a four-year-old business based in Bengaluru, India’s startup hub, in order to build a platform that will provide a lot of stability to agricultural produce.
Fyllo is an agriscience platform driven by a proprietary method that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to study plants’ exact needs in real-time and give farmers timely advice.
The start-up, known as Agrihawk Technologies Private Limited, was founded in 2019 by Sudhanshu Rai and Sumit Sheoran. To date, it has installed more than 4,000 Internet of Things devices, known as Kairo and Nero, across 10 states, covering more than 34,000 acres, 5,000 farmers, and more than 15 different crops. “We wanted to dispel the myth that anything or any product can satisfy farmers, and this is evident in the design, feel, and appearance of both Kairo and Nero. The underlying message is that farmers should only receive the finest. Both products are of the highest calibre, appealing, and reasonably priced, according to Sheoran.
An easily operated and self-installable device at the farm serves as the first step in the process, after which a multilingual app on the user’s mobile phone provides the crucial analysis required to give the farmer real-time insights related to irrigation, nutrients, diseases, pests, soil moisture, and weather management for each physiological stage of crop and soil.
“Kairo captures 12 parameters from soil, canopy, and environment and can cover up to 150 acres of land and provide complete advisories, while Nero captures three critical parameters from soil and provides precise irrigation, nutrient schedule, and other services,” claims Sheoran.
The start-up, which employs about 40 full-time workers and 10 part-time workers, claims that its systems have consistently increased farmers’ income by 25–50% while reducing their input costs by 25%, saving over 15 billion litres of water and more than two million kilos of carbon emissions, and reducing the use of pesticides and fertilisers by 30%. More significantly, it asserts that with about 80% of the food being of export quality, the output will increase by 25% to 50% and the farmer’s income will rise by 25 to 50 percent.
Furthermore, the start-up appears to be growing in popularity if the app usage analytics are to be believed. In contrast to farmers who acquired additional devices after one crop cycle, 100% of subscribers renewed their subscriptions.
The farmers at first refused to heed our advice, and we realised we needed to be close to them. So, we moved from Bengaluru to Nashik. Things began to alter at that point. Farmers started to trust Fyllo when we began working with them and showing them the outcomes, according to Sheoran.
In terms of financial growth, the startup saw a 300 percent increase in income in FY23 compared to the prior fiscal year. Selling the devices and then charging an annual subscription fee is how the startup earns money.
While this is going on, the startup has so far raised $2.2 million in a pre-series a funding round in which participants included, among others, Venture Catalysts, Lead Angels, Titan Capital, IAN, 100X.VC, and Lead Angels. The startup has future aspirations to take its existing model global, introduce a B2B SaaS platform based on the vast amount of data they have gathered, and provide ancillary goods like insurance, etc.
“The goal for the next 5-8 years is to deliver crop-specific recommendations in 40+ crops to millions of farmers throughout the world. We’ll develop farm-specific crop insurance, a tool that allows agri-input businesses to track the spread of diseases and pests over the entire nation. The nation’s greatest network of weather monitoring systems will shortly be in place. The focus in the immediate term is on utilising this data in conjunction with other data sources to develop solutions for the agribusiness, according to Sheoran.
It appears that the start-up is placing a large wager since more Indian farmers are using technology and gadgets to improve both the amount and quality of their output. This trend is supported by rising sales of tractors, drip irrigation systems, and water-soluble fertilisers, among other things.
