Smart farming, futuristic technologies in farm industry. Tablet with app for control plants growing, drone, wind mills, solar panels, agricultural automation and robotics Cartoon vector illustration
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Krithika R 2517@Coimbatore
Investments in Indian agritech, which rebounded during 2024, are seen improving further this year driven by investor interest and with some start-ups eyeing path to profitability.
Agtech investments rebounded to $411.74 million during 2024, from the previous year’s $320 million, according to ThinkAg, which recently came out with a report ‘AgFoodTech in India 2025’, which highlights the innovation and investment trends in the sector.
The year 2023 was a rough year for Indian agtech as investments plummeted 65 per cent from previous year’s $901 million. The decline was broadly in line with the moderation witnessed across various sectors during the year.
Though deal volumes dropped to 61 during 2024, investors remained focussed on existing portfolio companies with limited fresh investments, and follow-on funding stayed cautious, the report said. About 82 per cent of the deals were follow-up funding raised by existing firms and only 15 per cent of the companies, received cheques exceeding $15 million in 2024.
“There will be some improvement this year. I am hopeful that investments in this year could be in the range of $500 to $800 million, depending on the few late stage rounds,” said Hemendra Mathur, Co-founder, ThinkAg.
The moderation witnessed during 2023 made valuations more realistic and resulted in focus on capital efficiency, Mathur said. “2024 became a better year with investors returning in and of course, the discipline in investments have gone up even as we talk in 2025 now. There’s no overemphasis on growth as it was earlier and that the growth at any cost paradigm has more or less died down. Path to profitability and path to IPO are becoming more and more important,” Mathur said.
Areas of interest
During 2024, downstream agtech continued to attract largest chunk of funding, while precision agtech emerged as a new category of interest, attracting substantial investor interest. Foodtech saw an 18 per cent investment increase, primarily driven by follow-on deals.
New wave foodtech dominated the landscape, benefiting from strong consumer demand and investor confidence in India’s brand narrative. The emerging category of Agri-food wastetech gained traction with $6.25 million invested across five deals, reflecting growing recognition of India’s massive food loss challenge, the report said adding that the cautious approach to investment in the sector witnessed during 2024 is expected to continue this year, the report said.
Published on July 8, 2025