Representing the farmers of India

At Kamatan, we put farmers first. With a vision to build a socially inclusive and impactful business we are solving the core challenges of agri producers: to gain improved access to markets, technology and capital. We are building an inclusive agri ecosystem, with the perspective of the producer at its core, by leveraging the aggregate business potential of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs).

Our Philosophy

We strongly believe in building a socially inclusive ecosystem by addressing the needs of both producers and buyers. We are doing so by representing the farmers as an aggregate, while organising the buyers.

We work with Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), rather than individuals as it allows us to aggregate the potential of farmers and unlock new value chains.

We seek to build efficient supply chains for all farm produce, leveraging technology to reduce wastage and inefficiencies, while linking producers and bulk buyers in a seamless, transparent, and value-driven relationship. We handle the entire range of farm produce, sourced directly from farmers and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), and customize the supply model for each buyer.

By assisting the farmers in the implementation of best practices in producing, harvesting, packaging, and transporting produce, we make sure that they get value for their produce that is significantly higher than the traditional supply-chain offered them earlier.

Through our nation-wise marketing linkages, from traders in the biggest mandis/hubs to large modern trade retailers in metros, we make sure that quality produce reaches the market. We have made deep investments in setting up warehouse infrastructure, distribution centers and logistics.

This is achieved by using our technology platform as the backbone and vastly experienced execution team, led by founders with deep expertise in the fields of: agricultural policy making, farming best practices, farmer network, distribution, logistics and technology.

Leadership

We are led by an experienced founding team with deep roots in the FPO ecosystem, expertise in building and running efficient supply chains and ability to build scalable technology solutions.

Pravesh Sharma

CEO

Pravesh Sharma, is leading the enterprise as CEO. He is a former 1982 batch IAS officer with deep experience of the agriculture sector. In his long association with the sector, he served as Secretary, Agriculture in the Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, as India Representative of the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Visiting Fellow at Princeton University and most recently (2010-2015) as MD of the Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), Govt. of India where he helped register over 1000 FPOs across the country.

Amol Patil

CTO and Co-founder

Amol is graduate from IIT Bombay. Most of his career spanning 20+ years, has been spent in building tech products and teams, in early stage start-ups. At Stratify, he built the India Tech org from ground up and at Myntra (acquired by Flipkart), his team built the supply chain backend for e-commerce business. He headed technology at Taxi for Sure (acquired by Ola) and scaled it during its hyper growth years. His proven ability to build scalable tech platforms, has been a key driving force for Kamatan.

Investors and Advisors

Elevar Equity

Investor

Elevar Equity was the first institutional investor in Kamatan. Elevar Equity has been at the forefront of impact investing since 2006. Led by an entrepreneurial emerging markets team, Elevar seeks to connect the economic resilience and vibrancy of low income communities with capital markets. To address issues of access and inequity, Elevar invests early growth capital in entrepreneurs and businesses that demonstrate a direct correlation between high impact and returns. The Elevar Method of investing has democratized essential products and services for over 30 million low income households in India and Latin America, and catalyzed billions of dollars of capital into 40+ companies.

https://www.elevarequity.com/

Global Innovation Fund (GIF)

Investor

Global Innovation Fund (GIF) is non-profit innovation fund headquartered in London with offices in Washington D.C and Nairobi. GIF invests in the development, rigorous testing, and scaling of innovations targeted at improving the lives and opportunities of millions of people in the developing world. It is supported by the Department for International Development in the UK, the United States Agency for International Development, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade in Australia.

https://www.globalinnovation.fund/

Hemendra Mathur

Independent Director

Hemendra has over 24 years of experience in venture capital, private equity, management consulting and investment banking. He is a mentor, investor and board member in many food and ag-tech start- ups working on innovations in areas such as agri-inputs, market linkages, mechanization, food nutrition and value chain financing.

He is working as Venture Partner with Bharat Innovation Fund, is co-founder of ThinkAg – a platform for accelerating the adoption of innovations in agriculture space and is also the Chairman of FICCI Task Force on Agri Start-ups.

He is a management graduate from IIM (Ahmedabad) and Agricultural Engineer from Rajasthan Agricultural University.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hemendra333