Page 24 - Plastics News August 2021

FEATURE

BASF Venture Capital Invests In Indian Hydroponics Pioneer

Urbankisaan

A pioneer in the hydroponics space, UrbanKissan has developed a unique growing method and com-
bines this with a compelling business model for sales

ASF Venture Capital GmbH (BVC) approach in hydroponics enables us Nutrient content, pH levels, atmospheric
Bis investing in the Indian startup to produce our food cost-effectively humidity, CO2 concentration, light
UrbanKisaan, which specializes in and with relatively little effort,” said concentration and other important
parameters are controlled and adapted
to the needs of the particular plants
with an app.

“UrbanKisaan, as a pioneer in the
hydroponics space, has developed a
unique growing method and combines
this with a compelling business model
for sales,” commented Markus Solibieda,
Managing Director of BASF Venture
Capital GmbH. He added: “AgTech is
one of our key investment focus areas
worldwide. This includes, in particular,
hydroponic cultivation of various types Vihari Kanukollu, co-founder and CEO our goal of supporting innovative
of vegetables, greens and herbs in at UrbanKisaan. “Our produce also agricultural and food-related businesses
tropical urban environments. This contributes towards sustainability as it in Asia. We look forward to learning
is BVC’s first investment in an early is grown in clean, hygienic farms in and more about hydroponic farming and
stage business focusing on India. around the city, thus minimizing the total exploring its potential through a close
Conceptualized in 2017, UrbanKisaan carbon footprint. Use of IoT (Internet- collaboration between UrbanKisaan and
operates several suburban greenhouses of-Things)-enabled technology for BASF’s agriculture experts.”
and vertical indoor farms in Hyderabad monitoring the farms ensures pesticide-
and Bangalore. The company sells the free produce. The growing demand from With the investment from BASF,
fresh produce, some of which is grown our customers shows that our idea is UrbanKisaan plans to further expand
directly in the shops, in its franchise- well-received,” he added. its market presence in India, deploy
owned brick-and-mortar stores and via Recalling early days Kanukollucsays, its farming technology to work with
an app and website. “When we started UrbanKisaan in thousands of farmers, and bring fresh,

Both parties agreed not to disclose 2017, we wanted to grow more than just local, sustainable produce to urban
dwellers.
financial details of the investment. fresh and nutritious food. We wanted to
UrbanKisaan has optimized hydroponics create a sustainable future for farming
technology for use in tropical climates and feed the world in a way that is good
such as India. With only one tenth of for both people and planet. By creating
the costs, the proprietary technology hyper-local urban farms we are creating
is significantly more efficient than a complete transparent supply chain with
conventional global standards in low-carbon footprint and our growing
hydroponics cultivation. technique helps us save 95% water yet
grow 30x compared to traditional farms.”
The company is also capitalizing on the
trend of online food retailing, which UrbanKisaan’s farms are managed
is booming on the subcontinent. “Our through their proprietary technology.

24 PLASTICS NEWS AUGUST 2021