Farm services and machinery rental portal EM3 Agri Services has raised $10 million from London-based non-profitable Global Innovation Fund on Tuesday.
EM3 Agri Services works under the brand name Smadhan M.P. and some parts of Gujarat. The company offers farm equipment such as ground-levelling machines, deep-ploughing equipment and power harrows for making seed beds to farmers on rent.
The series B investment will power its expansion in Rajasthan.
“We are excited about the agreement because this gives us an opportunity to scale up faster than planned, and that has actually accelerated our fund-raise as well,” said Adwitiya Mal, Co-founder and CEO, EM3 Agri.
The company also signed an agreement with the State Government of Rajasthan to expand its services in the state. According to the interview, EM3 will be expanding its services in Rajasthan in phases, beginning with districts in South. Over the next 12-18 months the company will set up operational outposts called Samadhan Kendras, which maintain the equipment and double up as customer facing stores across the state.
Founded by Adwitiya Mald and his father Rohtash Mal, in 2013, it targets India’s small farmers who mostly rely on manual labour because they cannot afford heavy machineries such as advanced farm implements, tractors and harvesters. EM3 Agri is pioneering a model it calls Farming-as-a-Service, where equipment and services are rented out and charged as pay-per-use (typically based on hours or area of the farm).