Weather Risk Management Services (WRMS), based in Gurgaon, is an agriculture and dairy risk management firm co-founded by Sonu Agarwal, Anuj Kumbhat and Ashish Agarwal with the goal to empower small farmers and make farming sustainable and profitable. To this end, it launched SecuFarm app, “a one-of-a-kind solution in the agri space, to offer farmers farm-level yield assurance by downscaling their risk using technology and data,” says Kumbhat, CEO and co-founder. “The SecuFarm app reaches farmers across India with the latest digital technology and handholds them to make sure they get a better yield by following the package of practices shared with them in their own language.”

Once farmers get enrolled, their farm is geo-tagged for farm-level monitoring. Post this, they start getting customised crop management advisory, weather forecast, irrigation advisory, etc. “The app also links the farmers directly to agri experts to resolve their queries,” says Kumbhat. “It also offers post harvest market linkages to ensure they get best prices for their yield.” In case they don’t produce the assured minimum yield even after following the package of practices, the firm gives them timely compensation. “SecuFarm is a complete income protection solution for the farmers that also drives them towards sustainable and climate smart farming practices,” he adds.

According to Kumbhat, WRMS is affiliated with over 2.5 mn farmers; in all, it has geo-tagged 1 mn acres of land, created 25,000 SecuFarms, and deployed over 10,000 IoT devices. Its subsidiary Ingen Technologies is a leading IoT manufacturer of automatic weather stations, automatic irrigation systems, pest traps, survey drones and soil moisture sensors.

“By leveraging indigenous technology that’s backed by a team of 300 experts, we have built a strong reputation across 22 states of India and 15+ countries,” says Kumbhat. The firm is Ebitda positive, and anticipates 50% growth without external capital injection over 3-5 years. “We have received funds from UPL, ILO, and the Ford Foundation so far. UPL, the world’s fifth largest agrochemical company, is our primary investor. We aim to take SecuFarm to a million farmers in 3-4 years,” he says.