Rural social network Krishify gets $6.2 mn funding for expanding business

Krishify app helps farmers, rural communities and agribusiness companies to interact and transact among themselves.

Krishify, a social network for Indian farmers, has closed $6.2 million in a funding round that saw the additional participation of VC fund Omnivore alongside existing investors Ankur Capital, Omidyar Network India, and Orios Venture Partners.

Krishify raised $2.7 million in August 2021 before closing the the Pre-Series A round that got it an additional $3.5 million. The company’s app has more than 6.5 million downloads and 1.3 million monthly active users, making it India’s largest social network for farmers and rural communities.

Krishify, which is based in Gurugram in Haryana, said it is building an “agriverse” where farmers, rural families, retailers, traders, and agribusiness companies can interact and transact among themselves.

Krishify was founded in 2019 by IIT alumni Rajesh Ranjan, Manish Agrawal, and Avinash Kumar. Ranjan was previously a product manager with Analytics Vidhya. He co-founded Instano, a virtual shopping mobile app that was acquired by MagicTiger. Agarwal previously worked as a senior engineer at Rivigo and Kumar was once a UPSC aspirant.

Krishify plans to use the new funds for expanding in India, improving its technology, advertising, lead generation, and marketing services. “We are excited to partner with Omnivore in our journey to build India’s agriverse. More and more Indian farmers are connecting via Krishify every day, as the network breaks down geographic barriers and helps people interact to access knowledge and do business," said Ranjan.

Ranjan cited a third-generation farmer in Rajasthan who had sold record numbers of guava saplings to counterparts in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra "who only could have ever discovered him through the Krishify app.”

Mark Kahn, Managing Partner at Omnivore, said: “Rising smartphone penetration in rural India has created an opportunity to build a farmer-centric social network for India’s 130 million cultivators and their families, a total population of over 600 million. Krishify is building a content-centric agriverse to help farmers and rural communities realize greater success and joy through peer-to-peer engagement.”