Ep. 142 : ₹2700 Crore Agri-business ft. Arya.ag
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
entrepreneurs and especially professionals who've sort of worked and then come into entrepreneurship, we come with something which I really call as a the as the Messiah syndrome. You know, we we come in with this thought saying, you know, I know all and I'm here to solve it and then you know the farmers will sort of learn from me. And, you know, I have I I have all the answers. So That was like shattered in the first six months when you went and interacted with customers saying that, you know, you really don't know anything, boss. You know, you you only come with a certain hypothesis. Uh maybe that hypothesis is based on certain facts and and and and and your understanding, but that understanding is very, very limited as compared to what the reality of the market is.
Welcome to episode 142 of Founders Unfiltered. I'm Aviral here with Mazan. We've been running this podcast for over five years now, and the goals always been simple, unscripted, honest conversations with Indian founders about what it really takes to build a company. Today's guest is Prasanna Rao, the co-founder and CEO of Aria.ag, one of India's largest agri tech platforms, building end-to-end solutions for farmers. FPOs and enterprises. From post harvest storage and finance to market linkages, Arya has scaled across 20,000 plus warehouses and touched millions of farmers. In this episode, we'll unpack Prasanna's journey from banking and finance to reimagining India's agricultural supply chain and explore what it takes to build trust, technology, and scale in probably one of the toughest industries.
industries in India to disrupt. Uh Prasana, welcome to the podcast.
Well thank you. Thanks Avial. Thanks thanks Marzin for having me uh with you guys today.
Cool. Uh before we dive into the heavyweight stuff, we wanted to start with a rapid fire round to get things moving. Uh quick answers, maximum honesty is what we'd request. Uh so Prasana, who's a founder you'd blindly back?
Um somebody who believes in responsible profit. Okay.
Concise one mental model, film or book that shaped how you think?
Um I think uh there was uh there was a quote by Dr. Virgis Kuryan, which I was uh really influenced by which said India's place in the sun would come from the partnership between the skills of its professionals and the wisdom of its farmers. So I think that's really sort of
uh
has
driven me and keeps me going. Nice.
What is Arya.ag and who is it built for?
One myth about Indian agriculture you wish more people knew.
Uh, that in agriculture you can't make money and create a profitable company without taking shortcuts.
Um a ritual a habit that keeps you motivated.
Uh I think uh talking to different stakeholders, investors, customers and and the team.
Nice. If Arya didn't exist, what would you be building? Probably something to do with teaching, I guess. Nice. Super. Prasana, uh for our listeners who may not know what Aria does, how would you describe what you're building and whom you're building it for?
You know, we took some time to arrive at this, but uh uh what RR really does is to solve two very basic problems in Indian agriculture. Uh the first being that uh farmers and other smaller entities uh near the farm gate involved in Indian agriculture do not have the choice to really decide when they want to sell their produce after harvesting. Um which basically means that immediately after harvest they tend to sell uh their produce at distress prices because that is the time the prices are the lowest, knowing fully well that if they could wait for a few months they could earn at least another fifteen to forty percent more than what they actually did. And the second question that we solve for is the freedom of choice for these smaller entities to be able to decide whom they want to sell their produce to.
In invariably after harvest where they're selling, even at those distress prices, they end up selling to some local intermediary, maybe a some money lender who would have given them some money prior to harvest and would have had some kind of an informal contract saying, you know, once you harvest, you have to sell your produce to me.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:34
2
What is Arya.ag and who is it built for?
2:34–6:38
3
How did Prasanna’s banking background shape Arya’s founding story?
6:38–10:50
4
What core problems in Indian agriculture does Arya aim to solve?
10:50–13:17
5
How did Arya develop the combined warehousing‑finance‑marketplace model?
13:17–16:33
6
What were the biggest early‑stage challenges and how were they overcome?
16:33–22:39
7
How does Arya create trust between farmers, warehouses, lenders and buyers?
22:39–26:38
8
Who are Arya’s main competitors and how does the market landscape look?
26:38–41:48
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