Unnati Agri crossed ₹515 crore in revenue in FY24, a near ten-fold jump from ₹54.5 crore just three years earlier — and it still spent ₹1.03 to earn every rupee of that revenue. The company built by a Paytm veteran to move seeds, crop protection and fertiliser through village retailers has scale most agritech startups never reach, yet it has not made a rupee of profit in any year on public record.
That contradiction — a platform large enough to be called one of India’s biggest agri-input distributors, still bleeding on razor-thin trading margins — sits at the centre of this story. It also explains why, in 2025-26, Unnati agreed to absorb a rival, Info Edge-backed Gramophone, and why its co-founders spent years financing farmers and retailers others would not touch. This is how a fintech operator ended up running one of India’s largest agri-input pipes, what the numbers actually say, and where the model can still break.
Quick facts
| Company | Unnati Agri (brand), operated by Akshamaala Solutions Private Limited; CIN U72200DL2010PTC209266 |
| Founded | Agritech operations commonly dated to 2017; legal entity incorporated in Delhi in 2010 (per CIN); co-founder Amit Sinha joined full time around 2019 |
| Founders | Amit Sinha (ex-Paytm) and Ashok Prasad (ex-Paytm, telecom veteran; died 11 May 2026) |
| Businesses | Agri-input distribution, agri-output, embedded financial services and data/AI advisory for farmers and rural retailers |
| Latest FY revenue | ₹515 crore (FY24), up 30% from ₹397 crore (FY23) — MCA filings via Entrackr |
| Latest FY profit/loss | Net loss of ₹16 crore (FY24), widened from ₹14 crore (FY23) |
| Listed | Private |
| Last valuation | Reported at about $56.3 million (roughly ₹540 crore); unconfirmed by the company |
| Key shareholders / CEO | Co-founder Amit Sinha; backers include NABVENTURES, Incofin, Orios Venture Partners, Zephyr Management and Info Edge (via the Gramophone deal) |
What Unnati Agri does
Unnati Agri runs a digitally connected distribution network that links agri-input manufacturers and brands to rural retailers, and through those retailers to farmers. It is, at its core, a business-to-business-to-farmer supply chain for the physical goods a crop needs — seeds, crop nutrition and crop protection — wrapped in software, credit and advisory.
- Product catalogue: 4,000+ SKUs across the farming lifecycle, spanning crop protection, seeds and crop nutrition (company website, September 2026).
- Brand supply: 50+ input brands sell through the platform (company website).
- Retail reach: a 22,000+ retailer base according to the company’s own site; some third-party profiles cite a larger 65,000+ retailers across 380+ districts — the figures are not reconciled, so treat the higher number with caution.
- Four stated pillars: agri-input (the core), agri-output (produce), financial services (embedded credit) and advisory (weather, soil and crop guidance, increasingly AI-assisted).
The origin
The founding insight came from fintech, not farming. Amit Sinha spent roughly 12 years across two stints at Paytm parent One97 Communications, holding roles that included CFO, Head of HR, COO of Paytm Mall and Business Head for Paytm Insurance. He had watched digital payments and credit reach corners of India that formal finance had ignored, and he made a bet: the same playbook — distribution plus data plus embedded finance — could work for the inputs a farmer buys every season.
He did not build it alone. Ashok Prasad, a friend and former colleague with more than 25 years across Ericsson, Nokia Networks, Nortel Networks, Tata Teleservices and Paytm, co-founded the company and ran it as chief executive. The two had, in Sinha’s words after Prasad’s death, “a deep friendship built on trust, resilience, and a common belief that technology can meaningfully transform Indian agriculture.” Sinha left Paytm around 2019 to work on Unnati full time. Sources disagree on the exact birth year — Tracxn dates the company to 2017, an obituary traces the partnership to 2011, and the corporate identity number shows the legal vehicle, Akshamaala Solutions, was registered in Delhi in 2010. What is not disputed is that the operating business scaled from 2019-2020 onward.
The struggle years
Agri-input distribution is a punishing business to build. Margins are thin, the customer is seasonal, and the retailer in the middle runs on informal credit. Unnati spent its early years proving it could move goods at all, and the numbers show how small it once was.
- FY21 revenue was just ₹54.5 crore — the company was still tiny, operating into the disruption of the COVID-19 period, when rural supply chains and farmer cash flows were both under strain.
- Losses were structural from the start: even as revenue tripled to ₹159 crore in FY22, the company posted a net loss of ₹9.3 crore on total expenses of ₹168 crore.
- The model itself had to evolve — from an advisory-and-services idea into a full-stack input distribution engine carrying inventory, retailer credit and logistics, a far more capital-hungry business than software alone.
- The hardest blow was human, not financial: co-founder and CEO Ashok Prasad died of a sudden cardiac arrest on 11 May 2026, a loss the company said hit “the company’s growth, institutional capabilities, and long-term strategic direction.”
The turning point
The clearest inflection is consolidation. In 2025-26 Unnati agreed to absorb Gramophone, a rival agri-input startup backed by Info Edge (the Naukri and Zomato investor), in a share-swap deal that both sides framed as building one of India’s largest agri-input companies. The transaction folds a competitor’s demand base into Unnati’s supply chain rather than fighting it for the same retailers.
The reported figures on each side of the deal do not fully agree between outlets, so both versions are given here:
- Per Inc42, Info Edge is selling its Gramophone stake to Akshamaala Solutions in a swap valued at about ₹917.1 million ($10.1 million), taking preference shares equal to 15.75% of Unnati, plus a further ₹35 crore (₹350 million) investment — leaving Info Edge with about 20.53% of Unnati.
- Per Entrackr, Info Edge held about 32.89% of Gramophone as its largest external shareholder, and Gramophone shareholders would hold roughly 30-35% of the combined entity.
- The businesses being merged were moving in opposite directions: Gramophone’s GMV fell to ₹98 crore in FY24 from ₹316 crore in FY23 (Entrackr), while Unnati’s revenue had crossed ₹500 crore in FY24. Gramophone had raised over $20 million; Unnati’s disclosed equity was smaller.
The strategic logic is scale and a stronger cap table: Info Edge becomes a substantial shareholder, and the merged group claims an input annual-recurring-revenue run-rate approaching ₹375 crore in FY26 (Entrackr).
The money behind it
Unnati’s capital story leans heavily on development-finance and impact investors rather than large consumer-tech funds — fitting for a rural, agri-first business. Total funding is reported inconsistently, and the range is worth naming rather than picking one figure.
- Pre-Series A (October 2020): $1.7 million from NABVENTURES, the venture arm linked to NABARD.
- Series A (November 2021): $8 million (about ₹60 crore) led by Incofin Investment Management, NABVENTURES and Orios Venture Partners.
- Series A extension (April 2025): about $2.7 million from Zephyr Management alongside existing backers Incofin, NABVENTURES and Orios.
- Info Edge (2025-26): a fresh ₹35 crore cash investment plus the Gramophone share swap, per Inc42.
- Total raised: reported at about $16.5 million across six rounds (PitchBook / focusagritech, April 2025); Entrackr describes Unnati’s equity raised as “over $11 million”; Tracxn tallies about $30.4 million across eight rounds, a figure that appears to include debt. Latest valuation is reported at roughly $56.3 million and is not company-confirmed.
- A larger Series B led by Zephyr Peacock, targeting around ₹100 crore, has been reported as in progress; treat it as announced rather than closed.
How it makes money
Unnati earns primarily as a trading and distribution business, buying agri-inputs from brands and moving them to retailers and farmers — which is why its revenue looks large but its margin looks thin. The economics are those of a distributor with a fintech layer bolted on.
- Money in: the spread on agri-inputs sold through the retailer network, plus fees and interest from embedded financing and, in smaller measure, advisory and agri-output services.
- Costs out: the cost of goods dominates. Material (procurement) cost was ₹469 crore in FY24 — 88% of total expenses of ₹533 crore — up 27% year on year.
- Where the margin sits: very little, at the trading level. In FY24 the company spent ₹1.03 for every ₹1 of operating revenue; EBITDA margin was -2.03% and ROCE was -17.19%.
- The credit engine: discount charges — the cost of financing and early-payment discounts in the supply chain — more than doubled to ₹31 crore in FY24 from ₹15 crore, a sign that financing volume, and its cost, is growing fast.
- The part people get wrong: the ₹515 crore headline is gross trading revenue, not a software take-rate. On the input business the company cites operating margins of 30-35% (Entrackr), but group-level profit remains negative after financing and overhead.
The numbers
Three-plus years of audited-filing data (in ₹ crore, sourced from MCA filings via Entrackr) show fast top-line growth alongside persistent, slowly widening losses:
| Fiscal year | Revenue (₹ crore) | Net loss (₹ crore) |
| FY21 | 54.5 | Not disclosed |
| FY22 | 159 | 9.3 |
| FY23 | 397 | 14 |
| FY24 | 515 | 16 |
- Revenue grew about 30% from FY23 to FY24, decelerating from the near-tripling seen in FY22 and FY23.
- Total expenses rose 29% to ₹533 crore in FY24 from ₹412 crore in FY23.
- Employee benefit cost was a modest ₹15 crore in FY24, underlining that this is a goods business, not a headcount-heavy software firm.
- The loss is small relative to revenue — about 3% of turnover — but it has never turned positive on the public record.
Where the money comes from
The revenue mix is far more concentrated than the four-pillar branding suggests, and that concentration is the surprise.
- Agri-input transactions dominate: roughly 99% of FY24 revenue came from direct input transactions between farmers/retailers and agribusinesses, with the remainder from ancillary services (Entrackr). The fintech and advisory lines are strategically important but small in the revenue line today.
- Geography: the network is spread across rural districts of India; the company cites reach across hundreds of districts, though its own site currently emphasises a 22,000+ retailer base over district counts.
- The surprise: for a company that markets itself as an “agri-fintech” platform, the money is overwhelmingly old-economy input trading. Financial services show up more in the cost line — the doubling of discount charges to ₹31 crore — than as a large standalone revenue stream. The bet is that owning distribution first earns the right to monetise credit and data later.
The risks
- Thin, negative unit economics. Spending ₹1.03 to earn ₹1 (FY24) leaves no cushion. Because 88% of cost is procurement, small swings in input prices or discounting can erase the slim gross margin, and the company has never posted a profit on record. The mechanism to break: a season of price pressure or aggressive discounting that widens the loss faster than revenue grows.
- Embedded-credit and working-capital risk. Financing retailers and farmers ties up capital and exposes Unnati to defaults; discount/financing charges already doubled year on year. Agricultural lending is weather- and cycle-sensitive, so a poor monsoon or crop-price shock can convert receivables into losses across the network at once.
- Key-person and integration risk, now realised. The death of CEO and co-founder Ashok Prasad in May 2026 removed one of the two people who built the institution, at the same moment the company is absorbing Gramophone. Merging two sales forces, retailer bases and cap tables (with Info Edge as a large new shareholder) is operationally hard, and losing a founder mid-integration raises execution risk.
The takeaway
Unnati’s story carries one transferable lesson: in a distribution business, revenue is the easy part and margin is the whole game. The company proved it could grow from ₹54.5 crore to ₹515 crore in three years by solving physical distribution and rural credit — problems that stop most agritech startups cold. But scale bought it a large, low-margin trading book, not profit, and the payoff now depends on turning distribution reach into higher-margin financing and data over time. Buying Gramophone is a wager that consolidation, not more growth, is what finally makes the economics work. Anyone building in a thin-margin, capital-heavy category should study the sequence: win distribution first, but never mistake a big top line for a business that pays for itself.
Frequently asked questions
What is Unnati Agri and what does it sell?
Unnati Agri, run by Akshamaala Solutions Private Limited, is an Indian agritech platform that distributes agricultural inputs — seeds, crop protection and crop nutrition, over 4,000 SKUs from 50-plus brands — to farmers through a network of rural retailers, alongside embedded financing and crop advisory services.
Who founded Unnati Agri?
It was co-founded by Amit Sinha, a former Paytm CFO and COO of Paytm Mall, and Ashok Prasad, a telecom and Paytm veteran who served as CEO. Prasad died of a cardiac arrest on 11 May 2026. Sources date the business variously to 2011, 2017 and 2019; the legal entity was registered in 2010.
Is Unnati Agri profitable?
No. It reported revenue of ₹515 crore in FY24 but a net loss of ₹16 crore, and it has not posted a profit on the public record. In FY24 it spent about ₹1.03 for every rupee of operating revenue, with material costs making up 88% of expenses.
How much funding has Unnati Agri raised and who are its backers?
Reported totals range from “over $11 million” in equity (Entrackr) to about $16.5 million across six rounds (PitchBook), with Tracxn tallying around $30.4 million including debt. Backers include NABVENTURES, Incofin Investment Management, Orios Venture Partners, Zephyr Management and Info Edge.
Why did Unnati acquire Gramophone?
To consolidate India’s fragmented agri-input market. Unnati agreed to absorb Info Edge-backed Gramophone in a share-swap deal reported around ₹917 million, with Info Edge also investing fresh cash and becoming a major Unnati shareholder, aiming to create one of the country’s largest agri-input companies.
Sources
Figures are as of September 2026. Currency converted at $1 ≈ ₹96.0 as of 18 September 2026 (Trading Economics).
- Entrackr — “Unnati Agri crosses Rs 500 Cr revenue in FY24; losses widen marginally” (FY24/FY23 financials), 2024.
- Entrackr — “Unnati Agri’s revenue crosses Rs 150 Cr in FY22” (FY22/FY21 financials, Series A), December 2022.
- Entrackr — “Exclusive: Unnati Agri and Gramophone to merge in share-swap deal” (merger terms, Gramophone GMV, ARR), 2025.
- Inc42 — “Unnati To Acquire Info Edge-Backed Agritech Startup Gramophone” (deal value, Info Edge stake), 2025.
- Inc42 — “Unnati Agri Cofounder Ashok Prasad Passes Away” (death on 11 May 2026, company statement), May 2026.
- YourStory — “Fintech to farming: Why Amit Sinha quit Paytm to build an agritech startup,” February 2021.
- BW Disrupt / YourStory — Pre-Series A of $1.7M from NABVENTURES, October 2020.
- focusagritech / PitchBook — total funding about $16.5M, Series A extension of $2.7M, valuation about $56.3M, April 2025.
- Tracxn — Unnati / Akshamaala Solutions company profile (funding tally, founding year), 2026.
- Unnati Agri company website (unnati.ag) — 4,000+ SKUs, 50+ brands, 22,000+ retailers, September 2026.
- Ministry of Corporate Affairs / corporate registry — Akshamaala Solutions Private Limited, CIN U72200DL2010PTC209266.
Found an error? Write to us and we’ll correct it in the open, dated, on the piece.