Mahindra Group ups stake in agritech start-up Carnot to 69 per cent

Mumbai

The Mahindra Group has increased its stake in Carnot Technologies, an agri-tech startup, to approximately 69 per cent. The group has also affirmed its commitment to its vision of making Krish-e, the group’s farming as a service vertical, India’s largest ecosystem of digital products and solutions. As part of the round, an attractive ESOP pool for future employees has also been created.

Talking about the investment, Ramesh Ramachandran, Senior Vice President of Farm Equipment Strategy and Head Krish-e, said, “This investment signals our strategic commitment to Carnot. They have been at the forefront of building for Bharat and innovating specifically for farmers. Since our last investment in late 2020, they have been our partner in leading the digital product and technology vision for Krish-e and in just under 18 months we have built a digital platform with a big Bharat footprint – including 500,000 app users, 4mn rental hours and 4mn acres of farmland.”

The Krish-e app is part of Mahindra’s digital foray into developing a marketplace that provides a range of services centred around mechanization and advisory. It is one of the fastest-growing apps in the agriculture technology space having amassed over 3mn downloads. The app is also integrated with on-ground activities undertaken in Krish-e’s 100 centres across 16 states.

Carnot Technologies is a startup founded by IIT Bombay alumni which developed the leading agriculture IoT platform Simha (rebranded to Krish-e Rental) that now has over 25,000 tractors, harvesters and sprayers working on over 3mn acres of land each season.

“The team has also developed the Krish-e app, which through its unique and intuitive farmer-centric design is helping farmers earn up to Rs 15,000 more per acre,” says Pushkar Limaye, Co-founder & CTO at Carnot. “In the course of our partnership with M&M, we realized that someone had to understand our farmers and make products that are innovative, highly cost-conscious and make sense for our farmers. And if it's not the next generation of engineers and entrepreneurs then who will build them? With this round of investment, we also want to move into top gear, in pursuit of building a great team and a data-driven culture within every function.”

The team aims to invest more in their technology and people to scale rapidly in the next year.

Carnot CEO and Co-founder Rohan Vadgaonkar added, “With our technology and product mindset and Mahindra’s strong brand and presence in rural India, we’re perfectly poised to build India’s largest agri marketplace.”