Fall of BharatAgri, Deepinder Goyal’s Gravity Ageing, and upGrad Joins Bidding Fray

Founders often say they want to “transform Indian agriculture.” BharatAgri tried. It raised money, built tech, reached millions, and still shut down. The reason wasn’t lack of vision, it was lack of viable economics. You can build the best advisory, the smartest app, the most efficient kit. But if each farmer brings in ₹200-₹300 a year and costs ₹600-₹800 to serve, the story always ends the same way.

On paper, BharatAgri was promising. It raised $14 million, built AI-led advisory, sold seeds and crop kits, and claimed positive unit economics per order. Yet by 2025, it couldn’t raise a $6-8 million bridge round. The founder admitted the problem plainly: unit economics looked fine, but overheads were too high, and scale wasn’t big enough to attract investors. In simple words: the transactions made money; the company didn’t.

This is the core agritech problem. India’s farmers are too many, too small, and too costly to serve digitally at scale. The average farm is 1.08 hectares; in the US, it’s 170+ hectares. To equal one American customer, an Indian startup may need 100-150 farmers - each requiring onboarding, education, vernacular support, and after-sales assistance. CAC shoots up, support costs balloon, churn remains high, and order frequency stays low. It’s a structural mismatch.

The numbers reflect the exhaustion. Overall funding peaked at $1.3 billion in FY22; a year later, it dropped to $700 million. By 2023, it was barely $178 million. Only $96 million came in during the first half of 2025. For a sector that employs nearly half of India, agritech gets around 2% of total VC dollars. Investors love the story; they dislike the economics.

Even the “successful” agritech companies are struggling. DeHaat, Ninjacart, and WayCool all have revenues in the ₹1,200-3,000 crore range but collectively burn hundreds of crores each year. DeHaat spends ₹1.08 to earn a rupee. WayCool posted nearly ₹700 crore in losses. These are not tech businesses; they are supply-chain businesses disguised as tech.

Meanwhile, lighter models like BharatAgri - advisory + inputs - have even tougher odds. They don’t control output sales, credit, or infrastructure, so farmer lifetime value stays low. When capital tightened, the model simply couldn’t support itself.

Globally, agritech software works because farms are large and can pay tens of thousands of dollars for yield improvements. In India, 86% of farmers own less than 2 hectares. Even when tech works, the ticket size is too small to build a venture-scale business.

Does this mean agritech is doomed? Absolutely not. It just means the first-generation agritech fantasy is over.

Three truths are emerging:

1. The “one farmer, one app” dream is dead.

The only scalable path is through FPOs and cooperatives, where one partnership gives access to 500-1,000 farmers and crashes CAC to practical levels.

2. Agritech has to be phygital.

Local centres, micro-entrepreneurs, and village-level presence are not optional. They’re the core. DeHaat’s 8,000 centres and ITC’s MAARS show what it actually takes.

3. The real money is in boring infra and deep tech.

Cold chains, storage, machinery-as-a-service, climate-resilient seeds, and embedded finance solve real pain points and justify pricing. BigHaat reaching over ₹1,100 crore revenue with EBITDA positivity on only $25 million raised is the model to study, not fast-scaling apps.

Regulation will quietly reshape everything. AgriStack - if executed well - can slash onboarding and verification costs. FPO policies, cold chain subsidies, and procurement reforms will decide whether private models can survive long-term.

The lesson for founders is clear: don’t rely on vanity unit economics, don’t chase a TAM that exists only in pitch decks, and don’t assume infinite VC money will fix a structurally weak model.

For investors, the takeaway is equally blunt: agritech in India will not give you 100x returns. It will give you steady 3-5x over 8-10 years, if you pick the right full-stack and capital-efficient bets.

BharatAgri’s shutdown marks the end of agritech’s adolescence. The sector now enters adulthood - slower, more grounded, and far more honest. The farm doesn’t care about GMV graphs. It cares whether your model works in the real world, not just in a spreadsheet. Any startup that forgets this is heading exactly where BharatAgri did.

Let’s go through what else is happening in Indian startup world - Grab your simmering cup of StartupChai.in and unwind with our hand-brewed memes.

“Ye Kya Ho Raha Hai Bhaiya”: Deepinder Goyal’s Continue Research Unveils Its First Hypothesis

Deepinder Goyal’s Continue Research has introduced its first idea called Gravity Ageing. The team suggests that the constant pull on our cerebral blood flow might be silently influencing how we grow old.

They are not calling gravity the sole culprit, only hinting that it may be a major factor we have all been ignoring.

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“Mujhe Interest Hai Bahut”: upGrad Joins Bidding Fray For BYJU’S Parent Company

upGrad has stepped into the bidding arena for BYJU’S parent Think and Learn, joining Ranjan Pai’s Manipal Group in the hunt as it scans everything from the K12 business to Great Learning to Aakash to see what still holds promise.

While the Manipal Group itself has already filed an expression of interest to explore buying more of Aakash where it already owns a sizeable stake.

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“Tanashahi Nahi Chalegi”: IAMAI Raises Red Flags On MeitY’s Draft AI Labelling Rules

IAMAI has pushed back on MeitY’s draft AI labelling rules, warning that the definition of synthetic content is so broad it could even sweep in everyday digital edits.

While the proposal itself seeks labels on at least a tenth of AI generated material along with more user declarations and stricter platform checks, all unfolding against a backdrop of rising deepfake driven scams, hoaxes and reputation risks across India.

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“Ye Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai”: SoftBank, Blackstone In Talks To Acquire Stakes In Neysa

SoftBank and Blackstone are circling Neysa, with Blackstone eyeing a majority stake and SoftBank considering a smaller slice.

The deal could value the AI cloud startup at under $300 million with fresh capital likely to fuel its next growth spurt. Neysa, founded in 2023 and already backed by more than $50 million, builds cloud infrastructure for running heavy duty AI models.

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1. Edtech startup Codeyoung has secured $5 million in a Series A round led by 12 Flags Group and Enzia Ventures. The team plans to strengthen its presence in global markets while building AI powered personalisation tools and rolling out fresh learning categories.

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2. Ranjan Pai’s family office is gearing up to inject ₹250 crore into Aakash in phased tranches tied to shareholder support and performance targets. The move comes as Pai and the Aakash team prep a larger funding round for 2026 even as his Manipal Group throws its hat into the BYJU’S acquisition race.

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3. Capillary Technologies has secured about ₹394 crore from anchor investors ahead of its IPO bidding, with nine domestic mutual funds snapping up most of the allocation. The anchor list features heavyweights like SBI, ICICI Prudential, Kotak, Axis, Aditya Birla Sun Life, Mirae Asset, Edelweiss, PGIM India, and Union Mutual Fund.

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