Krishitantra, a Hyderabad-based Soil-tech startup, on Wednesday said that it has raised $1 million (about Rs 7.6 crore) in seed funding from Nabard's venture capital arm NABVENTURES and Omnivore.

Co-founded in 2017 by Sandeep Kondaji, Vishnuprasada Bhat, and Anand Bellan Raman, Krishitantra provides rapid IoT-based soil testing and soil nutrition advisory solutions to farmers, farmer producer organisations (FPOs), and agribusiness stakeholders.

Speaking about the latest investment, Sandeep Kondaji, Co-Founder and CEO, Krishitantra, said, "The funds will be used to expand operations across the country, and to reach out to lakhs of farmers and help them realise increased profitability and sustainability via improved soil health."

While presently focussed on the Indian market, Krishitantra also plans to enter select Southeast Asian countries in the near future. The startup has developed a highly-portable IoT device branded as Krishi RASTAA, that generates soil test results within 30 minutes, precisely analysing macronutrients, micronutrients, pH, organic carbon, EC, and microbial counts.

"Rapid Soil Testing along with real-time agronomy digitises an important component of farm extension services. The data play at the farm level is of huge value. This affordable solution would benefit farmers, FPOs, and other players in the agri ecosystem. Krishitantra has a market-winning solution in the making."

“Sandeep and the founding team at Krishitantra have built a cost-effective, rapid soil testing solution which can go a long way in addressing the problem of soil fertility, and encourage a shift towards precision agriculture in India. NABVENTURES will help Krishitantra accelerate the spread of its soil testing technology by connecting them with our network of FPOs, and leveraging NABARD’s pan-India presence,” said Gills John, VP, NABVENTURES.

Earlier this week, NABVENTURES invested $1.7 million in Pre-Series A funding in Unnati, a tech-driven agri input and agri produce selling agritech startup.

Venture capital firm Omnivore funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems in India. It has backed over 20 startups since 2011.