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Vicky Dodani
Co-Founder, Agrizy |
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Vicky Dodani is an entrepreneur and business professional with a strong background in supply chain, tech, and B2B marketplaces. As the Co-Founder of Agrizy, Vicky has demonstrated exceptional leadership and vision in the agrifood processing industry. Agrizy, under Vicky's guidance, has been at the forefront of revolutionizing the food processing landscape by leveraging innovative solutions to enhance efficiency and standardization across the agrifood processing value chains.
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1 Can you tell us the story of Agrizy from your perspective, including its founding, evolution, and key milestones that have led to its current success?
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Agrizy's journey began when Saket and I met while working at Blackbuck. Both of us come from backgrounds deeply rooted in the world of agri and food processing. This shared background, along with a first-hand experience of scaling B2B startups from scratch, formed the bedrock of our partnership. During our tenure at Blackbuck, Saket and I realized the pressing need for an innovative solution in the agri-food processing sector. Recognizing our aligned vision and purpose, we embarked on the journey to establish Agrizy, a B2B solution aimed at enhancing the capabilities of MSMEs in the agri-food processing domain.
Agrizy's evolution was marked by strategic choices and a relentless pursuit of solving critical problems. The initial markets the company targeted were in the eastern regions of India, such as West Bengal and parts of Bihar. These early forays allowed us to gain valuable insights and acquire our initial customer base. Crucially, we discovered that the challenges faced by food processors and large buyers were not confined to specific regions; they remained the same throughout India. This realization laid the foundation for Agrizy's scalability.
Key milestones along the way have paved the path to Agrizy's current success. From the MSME processor’s perspective, Agrizy's primary mission has been to provide consistent demand and optimize capacity utilization. By achieving this, Agrizy has effectively supported food processors in maximizing their production capabilities. On the buyer's front, Agrizy has excelled in delivering consistent quality, high serviceability levels, all while ensuring competitive pricing. Moreover, Agrizy has been able to build a flexible supply chain in customizing food processing solutions to cater to the unique requirements of its buyers.
A significant turning point in our journey was Agrizy’s foray into the international market. We have now expanded our reach to serve customers in eight different countries. This global expansion underscores the growing demand for Agrizy's products on the global stage, positioning India as a pivotal player in the global food processing industry.
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2 Could you discuss Agrizy’s financial sustainability model and how you plan to grow the enterprise in the future?
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Agrizy's financial sustainability model is built on a solid foundation of impressive growth and strategic partnerships. Since securing funding in March 2022, we have experienced exponential growth, boasting a remarkable 90X increase in FY22-23. This expansion has been fueled by onboarding industry giants like Reliance, Haldiram's, Adani Wilmar, and Godrej Agrovet, demonstrating Agrizy's ability to attract and retain top-tier clients.
One of our key strengths lies in the Agrizy platform, which has attracted over 1,000 buyers and suppliers, ensuring a consistent flow of business. Clients benefit from direct sourcing through the platform, streamlining the procurement process. Moreover, we have successfully ventured into the international market, becoming a major supplier of multiple products across processed agrifood products.
Looking ahead, we aim to further diversify its market presence by tapping into emerging opportunities, notably in Europe. This forward-thinking approach positions Agrizy for sustainable growth. Our profitable EBITDA underscores financial stability and our ability to capitalize on future prospects.
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3 Can you discuss any partnerships or collaborations that Agrizy has established with other organizations or stakeholders to maximize its impact in the agriculture sector?
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At Agrizy, we have actively pursued partnerships and collaborations with various organizations and stakeholders to amplify our impact within the agriculture sector. Our primary focus has been on working closely with MSME food processors, understanding the challenges they face as second or third-generation business owners with limited bandwidth and capabilities. To address these challenges, Agrizy has forged partnerships with several processors in India, aiming to provide comprehensive solutions.
First and foremost, Agrizy has played a pivotal role in helping processors secure new buyers. By connecting them with a consistent demand stream, we’ve opened up new avenues for growth. Also, we have helped the processors upgrade their processing capacities as per the global standards. With these initiatives, Agrizy has assisted agri-food processors in optimizing their capacity utilization. Many were operating at only 40% to 50% capacity before our collaboration, and we've successfully boosted their capacity to 80% to 90%.
Agrizy has also partnered with Ankur Capital, British International Investment (BII) and Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF) to improve the processing capabilities and capacity utilisation of MSME food processors. Through its strategic partnership with Ankur Capital, Agrizy will further its efforts toward reducing the gap in processing that leads to high levels of wastage. The company is working with MSMEs in this space, seeing a big opportunity in optimising supplier discovery, supporting technical upgrades and enabling the right market linkages - all of which can significantly improve productivity, plant utilisation and thus business outcomes; boosting operational utilisation of plants will also regularise workers’ employment and improve their earning potential.
This increased capacity utilization and access to a broader customer base have led to tangible impacts, notably a significant boost in revenue for our partner processors. Some of our long-term collaborators have experienced such substantial growth that they have invested up to Rs. 1 crore in expanding their processing facilities to meet the rising demand. These outcomes demonstrate the positive and transformative impact of Agrizy's partnerships on processors within the agri-food domain. Our commitment to nurturing these relationships and driving sustainable growth remains unwavering.
Furthermore, we have developed a platform that facilitates collaboration with banks and NBFCs. Through this platform, we assist financial institutions in monitoring and evaluating our partner processors based on their transactions conducted on Agrizy's platform. This enables us to streamline the process of providing working capital loans, alleviating one of the primary challenges faced by processors in the unorganized and fragmented agricultural industry.
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4 How does Agrizy measure the impact and effectiveness of its services?
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Agrizy assesses the impact and effectiveness of its services by considering the geographical locations of the processors we work with. Our recent survey revealed that a significant proportion, 76%, of these processors are situated in underserved districts of India. When we say ‘underserved’, we mean that these districts typically lack essential financial support, struggle with demand generation, and face logistical challenges. By operating in these areas, Agrizy adds substantial value, and this geographical impact is a key metric we use to gauge the effectiveness of our interventions. So, our measurement of impact is rooted in our ability to address the specific pain points of agri-food processors in regions where support and resources are often lacking.
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5 Can you share an example(s) of successful project(s) or initiative(s) by Agrizy that have led to improved agricultural practices and livelihoods for small-scale farmers?
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Agrizy has seen significant success in initiatives that have translated into improved agricultural practices and livelihoods for small-scale farmers. An illustrative example is our work with processors that resulted in increased capacity utilization and revenue growth, like I mentioned earlier. This positive outcome has a direct ripple effect on small-scale farmers. When processors experience improved revenue and expanded operations due to their collaboration with Agrizy, they often invest in their processing plants and acquire additional assets to handle more produce. This, in turn, leads to increased demand for agricultural products from local farmers, providing them with a more reliable market and enhanced income opportunities.
For instance, when a processor expands their operations to meet the rising demand facilitated by Agrizy, they may engage with a larger number of small-scale farmers, offering them contracts for the supply of agricultural produce. This not only stabilizes the farmers' income but also encourages them to adopt better agricultural practices to meet the quality and quantity requirements of the processors. In this way, Agrizy's initiatives create a virtuous cycle of improved agricultural practices and increased livelihoods for small-scale farmers, underscoring our commitment to driving positive impact in the agricultural sector.
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6 Considering the agriculture sector's vulnerability to the impacts of the climate crisis, what are your insights or perspectives on this critical matter?
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In light of the agriculture sector's vulnerability to the impacts of the climate crisis, it is crucial to recognize the importance of resilience and adaptability within industry. One perspective we have at Agrizy is the potential of processing techniques to mitigate the effects of climate-related fluctuations in agricultural production. For example, 8 kilograms of tomatoes can be processed into 1 kilogram of tomato paste at a total cost of around Rs. 60, which includes processing and packaging expenses. This cost of processed tomato products remains remarkably lower than the inflated prices of fresh tomatoes we saw of late in the market, and it tends to be more stable, with fewer fluctuations compared to the raw produce.
We can invest in similar processing techniques for other fruits and vegetables, thereby ensuring that consumers have access to affordable and stable prices for essential food items, regardless of the climate-related challenges that may impact raw agricultural production. It is a strategy that not only helps in managing price volatility but also reduces food wastage, which is another significant concern exacerbated by climate change. At Agrizy, we believe that innovative approaches like this can play a pivotal role in safeguarding the agricultural sector and food security in the face of climate-related uncertainties.
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