MoooFarm founded in 2019, the Gurugram-based startup is building a dairy-as-a-service offering where buyers can access high-quality cattle and financial services, order farm inputs, discuss their problems with qualified veterinarians and connect with fellow farmers.
It was not long ago that you would have to travel to the nearby cattle market or contact a local cow farmer to buy cattle. This meant that the cattle buyers did not have much choice, and market pricing were not harmonised.
Today, a new breed of companies not only connects cattle buyers and owners, but also offers services such as finance and access to vets.
MoooFarm, situated in Gurugram, is one such firm that has developed an app for dairy farmers. According to the firm, it employs technology to fill holes in India’s dairy ecosystem.
MoooFarm, started in 2019 by Param Singh, Aashna Singh, Jitesh Arora, and Abhijeet Mittal, operates throughout, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan as well as Maharashtra.
“MoooFarm is establishing a full ecosystem, not only inducting the greatest cattle for farmers. It also offers high-quality cow feed, free access to experienced vets, and insurance and financial services, all with the click of a smartphone,” explains Abhijeet.
MoooFarm claims that over one million farmers have downloaded their Android app. In the pevious ten months, it has sold over 20,000 cattle through its MoooAssurance program.
The firm relies on a network of certified partners to repair the supply chain. It also claims to have developed an improved inspection method for determining the quality and pricing of cattle using Machine Learning.
On the demand side, it has established a network of Mooosaathis, or social entrepreneurs, who sell the items to end users.
Jitesh and Abhijeet, two of MoooFarm’s co-founders, graduated from IIT Roorkee and have worked for analytics and consulting organizations. Aashna has a post-graduate degree from London Business School, while Param is a second-time entrepreneur who sold his previous company to an Australian-listed corporation.
So, why did the founders quit their secure employment to assist in the resolution of issues in India’s dairy industry?
“When Param arrived from Australia, he had a goal to influence 100 million lives, and dairy was one such industry with a significant deficit and close to 100 million farmers’ daily source of income. We all met through mutual connections and started talking about the massive gap in the dairy ecosystem and how to bridge it,” Abhijeet explains.
The team, which includes Aashna, Jitesh, and Abhijeet, originally chose to use face recognition to discover a solution for livestock insurance in 2019. They created the prototype in two months and entered it into a World Bank Challenge.
“After winning the challenge, we decided to combine forces and launch MoooFarm,” Abhijeet explains.
MoooFarm presently has over 50 employees. MoooFarm says it is nearing the end of its Series A round and plans to use the funds to expand operations and develop its brand.
In December 2021, it secured $2.4 million in a Seed round headed by Accel India with participation from Rockstart’s AgriFood fund and Navus Ventures.
There are two cattle trade models in MoooFarm: marketplace and inventory. A minor fee is levied to both the buyer and the vendor under the marketplace model. Cattle are sold at a little markup on the purchase price under the inventory model. Feed is manufactured in-house and sold at a low profit margin.
In FY22, the firm generated Rs 55 crore in revenue.
Abhijeet adds, “This is the highest recorded revenue in the startup ecosystem’s dairy industry, making MoooFarm a cash and vision-rich firm in an era when companies are losing cash and unable to monetize.”
It hopes to generate more than Rs 200 crore in income this year.
In 2021, the dairy market in India would be worth Rs 13,174 billion. According to the IMARC Group, which provides market research reports and consulting services, the market would reach Rs 30,840 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 14.98 percent between 2022 and 2027.
According to Abhijeet, MoooFarm is organizing the pre-farm gate dairy industry for a big and untapped market that accounts for about 4.6 percent of India’s GDP.
“MoooFarm’s ambition began with the creation of a linked commerce platform, powered by technology, to enhance revenue for India’s 80 million dairy farmers through simple solutions that make the process feasible and accessible to every farmer at their fingertips,” he adds.
In the future, it plans to increase its presence in cities in Punjab, Rajasthan, and Haryana, providing end-to-end service.
MoooFarm competes with Animall, Gaugau, Pashushala, Krishify, and others. In terms of feed, it competes with Cargill, Godrej Agrovet, and Tirana, among others.
It won the Animal Husbandry Grand Challenge from StartUp India in May 2020, as well as a $15,000 award from Microsoft in 2019. It has partnered with Google and Tata Trusts’ Internet Saathi initiative to teach rural women farmers.
Aashna, Abhijeet, and Jitesh, three of the four co-founders, have been included to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for 2021.
