Agritech investing in India remains a niche pursuit, but for Jinesh Shah, Managing Partner at Omnivore, it represents an opportunity to address some of the country’s most pressing challenges. With a career spanning roles as a chartered accountant, CFO at Nexus Venture Partners, and stints in technology firms like HCL and Patni, Shah now focuses on rural innovation—an area often overlooked by mainstream venture capital. His work extends beyond Omnivore; he contributes to policy discussions as part of the World Economic Forum’s agriculture working group, the CII National Council on Agriculture, and NITI Aayog’s Expert Council for the Future of Agriculture.
Omnivore’s journey began over a decade ago as a corporate venture arm of Godrej Agrovet before evolving into an independent fund. The firm’s thesis is simple: India’s agricultural sector, despite its inefficiencies, holds immense potential for scalable, impactful businesses. “Every part of the value chain can be improved,” Shah notes, pointing to global precedents where democracies have modernised their agricultural systems. The difference in India, he argues, lies in the patience required. Unlike tech sectors where exits can happen in three to four years, agritech demands a longer horizon—seven to eight years—before companies mature.
This patience has paid off. Omnivore’s portfolio includes firms like DeHaat, which operates in 16,000 villages, offering inputs, financing, and market linkages, and Arya.ag, India’s largest grain bank with over 1,200 warehouses. Then there’s Ecozen, providing solar-powered pumps and cold storage solutions, and Aquaconnect, a platform for aquaculture and shrimp exports. These companies aren’t just profitable; they’re redefining how agriculture functions in rural India. Shah’s perspective challenges the skepticism many investors harbour toward agritech. “When no one was interested, we started investing,” he says. The sector’s complexities—climate risks, policy volatility, and fragmented landholdings—are precisely why it offers outsized rewards for those willing to navigate them.
**Context Over Copy-Paste Solutions**
One of Omnivore’s core insights is that agritech solutions must be tailored to India’s unique conditions. Shah dismisses the notion that Western technologies—like satellite-driven farm management dashboards—can be directly applied here. “In India, farmers walk their two-acre plots daily,” he explains. “They don’t need a dashboard; they need actionable insights from a soil test or a drone spray service.” The country’s agricultural productivity hovers at 55 percent of the global average, a gap that could be narrowed with targeted interventions. For instance, India’s 4,000 soil testing labs serve 140 million farmers—a ratio that leaves vast room for improvement. Decentralised processing facilities near farms could also curb urban migration by creating rural jobs, Shah suggests, while addressing the sector’s low processing rates.
Financing remains another critical hurdle. Agriculture is capital-intensive, with India producing 200 million metric tonnes of dry commodities every six months. Omnivore’s focus on “inclusive fintech” reflects this need, as does its emphasis on digital value chains that connect farmers to markets more efficiently. Shah categorises the firm’s investments into four themes: emerging technologies (IoT, robotics), digital value chains, fintech, and sustainable food brands. Each addresses a specific friction point, whether it’s post-harvest losses, lack of credit, or inefficient supply chains.
**Policy and Perception: The Twin Challenges**
Despite progress, agritech startups grapple with systemic challenges. Climate change disrupts traditional farming cycles, while policy shifts—like sudden export bans or Minimum Support Price (MSP) distortions—can upend business models overnight. Shah pushes back against the common critique that India’s small landholdings are the root of low productivity. “China’s landholdings are half the size of ours, yet their yields are higher,” he counters. The real issues, he argues, lie in execution: falling water tables in Punjab, soil salinity in coastal regions, and the lack of infrastructure for storage and processing.
The innovation ecosystem, however, is evolving. Farmers today are better connected than they were two decades ago, with improved roads, cold chains, and digital tools. Shah’s optimism is cautious but grounded in data. Companies like Farmley (dry fruits and nuts) and Tractor Junction (second-hand farm equipment) demonstrate that agritech can build scalable, consumer-facing brands while solving upstream problems. For Omnivore, the goal isn’t just financial returns—though those are essential—but proving that rural India can be a crucible for globally relevant innovation.
What sets Shah’s approach apart