Engineers Turned Agri-preneurs

Tech companies have disrupted agriculture in recent years in an effort to transform it through the introduction of various technologies. The Indian Agritech sector is on a growing spree and is expected to be worth $24 billion by 2025. Evidently, Most of these startups are engineer-led, who are becoming the agripreneurs as they bring a skill set that has been honed over years of managing projects and solving challenging problems in the agriculture ecosystem. Here are some of the Engineers who turned Agripreneurs to disrupt the agriculture landscape.

Taranjeet Singh Bhamra is the CEO and Founder of AgNext Technologies, a globally award winning venture-capital backed company, that is solving for trust and transparency in global value chains using AI based solutions for enabling quality based assessments. A graduate of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Calcutta, Mr. Bhamra is an accomplished professional and business leader, having worked for more than 20 years in Strategy consulting, investment banking and high impact entrepreneurial roles in Indian and international markets. Taranjeet envisions a world where farmers and agribusinesses are able to transact better with the most efficient application of technology. Working in Deep technology, AgNext under Taranjeet’s leadership has pioneered computer vision, spectral and IoT based AI technologies, which today is employed at multiple transaction points enabling transparent and profitable trade in agriculture and food value chains.

Amit Sinha is the co-founder of Unnati, a new-age fintech powered Agritech platform. In his present capacity, Amit is responsible for overseeing all operations in Unnati. Amit comes with a rich academic background. Having completed his bachelor’s degree in mining engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), he went on to pursue his MBA in PGDM and marketing from the Indian Institute of Management. Throughout the course of his prolific career, Amit has achieved several milestones and has been associated with renowned organizations in senior roles. He has previously worked with brands such as Infosys, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Bharti Airtel, and One97 Communications. He joined Paytm where he served as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Head of HR, COO, and Business Head for Insurance for over 4 years, before co-founding Unnati with Ashok Prasad. Amit aims to leverage his rich expertise and industry experience to scale Unnati’s operations and create farmer entrepreneurs across the country.

Rajamanohar is the CEO & Founder of Aquaconnect, a full-stack aquaculture platform with embedded fintech, supported by a physical & digital distribution network. Through intelligent tech intervention, Aquaconnect is assisting over 60,000+ fish and shrimp farmers across India to improve farm productivity, market linkage and enable access to formal credit and insurance.Raj is an alumnus of IIT- Kanpur. He also holds a diploma from Harvard University and a fellowship from Stanford. The World Economic Forum has recognized him as one of the ‘Young Global Leaders-2012′ for his exceptional leadership and contribution to emerging markets’ Mobile4Good’ initiatives. He was also featured as part of the ’40 UNDER 40 Ecosapiens’ list by The New Indian Express for promoting sustainable aquaculture practices in India.