AgNext Technologies is one of India’s leading and fastest-growing agri-tech companies, providing deep-tech-enabled food quality assessment, monitoring, and management solutions. The company leverages a mix of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT), computer vision, and advanced data analytics to deliver rapid food quality assessment through its full-stack solution – ‘Qualix’. Dr. Subrat Panda is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at AgNext share more insights on the brand’s technologies & developments
1.The journey of the company since inception
Founded in 2016, AgNext is a category innovator in deep-tech solution development for food quality management. Incubated at IIT Kharagpur, AgNext acquired funds from ventures like Omnivore, Kalaari Capital, and recently, Falcon Edge-managed Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI), to build sophisticated and integrated technology solutions. AgNext is proud to be a part of very few startups in which two governments have invested (India and Abu Dhabi). In 2022, the company expanded operations to Abu Dhabi with the aim to further consolidate into MENA and European markets.
We have, till date trained our technology with 5 Million+ samples, analyzed 1000+ quality parameters & built over 100 AI algorithms, thus establishing the largest food spectral & optical bank.
AgNext has been honored with several domestic and international recognitions including:
- “Best use of AI in Agriculture” at GAISA 2022
- Entrepreneurial Path-Breaker by the Top Rankers Excellence Award 2022
- AI Game Changers by NASSCOM 2021
- Most Innovative Agri Startup Award by Ficci 2021
- Top 20 Futuristic Startups in India 2021
- Best AgriTech Startup Award by Outlook Awards 2020
- Amongst Top 5 in Rabobank Sustainable AgAsia Challenge 2019
- Best Innovation Award at ESRI India Summit 2018
- Best Product Award by TiEcon
- Agriculture Innovation Award by CII
- Upcoming Startup Award by Assocham
AgNext’s technology solutions have been deployed with both private and public sector clients. So far we have positively impacted 7,00,000+ farmers via instant food quality assessment & smart storage solutions; 100+ clients now save more than 40% via quality-based procurement, digital market linkages and traceability solutions; and 10,00,000+ have benefited by consuming quality-assured food through various government schemes such as Mid-Day Meal, Public Distribution Scheme, etc.
2.Tell us about your contribution to the company & Industry
As a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at AgNext, a leading venture funded ag-tech startup that aims to digitize and transform food quality assessment, I am currently working with the hardware IoT (for sensors), Computer Vision, NIR spectroscopy to ensure that quality as a measure is available objectively, ensuring trust & transparency in food value chains. We also have enabled quality centric software based use cases through our full-stack platform called Qualix for our customers. We are disrupting the quality domain across commodities like grains, pulses, oilseeds, milk, spices, tea – all done rapidly and instantly. We also ensure that these transactions, based on quality, are put on a blockchain to provide end to end traceability. Prior to this, I was the VP of Engineering, AI, and Data Sciences at Capillary Technologies, a SaaS company in the retail space with a presence in India, China, SEA, and EMEA. I was leading the AI and Data Sciences team where we were applying AI to build products in 2 areas: a) Instore Intelligence through IoT and AI on Edge and the backend, b) Build AI products around Recommendation, Personalization, and Insights. I have been the author of multiple patents and publications in international journals and conferences. Being a technology advisor, I am mentoring multiple startups in multiple domains.
3.What technologies are used by AgNext to address persistent legacy concerns in the food value chain?
We have unleashed the power of AI to enable the on-the-spot quality assessment of commodities instantly.
We create disruptive quality assessment and process monitoring solutions for agri-food businesses by integrating a plethora of the most advanced data sciences. Our unified platform Qualix collates food quality data using three core technologies – Spectral, Computer Vision and IoT and analyzes the physical, chemical & ambient parameters of food at different stages to ensure end-to-end visibility for food & Agri stakeholders.
Compared to traditional wet-lab chemistry quality-assessment methods and manual methods for physical characterization, our technology provides two clear advantages:
- Our non-destructive method of chemical assessment does not require any chemical reagents, which reduces the carbon footprint for testing to almost zero
- Getting conclusive results of the chemical composition and physical characterisation takes significantly lesser time (1-3 minutes) as compared to several hours in case of traditional methods
Our full-stack deep-tech enabled, SaaS ecosystem provides a combination of cutting edge technologies for evaluating the physical and chemical aspects of food in the form of liquids, solids, powders, grains, or leaves, essentially encompassing the complete range of what nature has to offer. Customizable & versatile in nature, our one stop solution, Qualix, is designed in a way that it can be integrated with the existing ERP systems of different businesses. Our solution is deployable across different intersections of the food value chains including farm-gates, import & export points, warehouses, food processors & traders among others. Our ever-expanding commodity portfolio currently includes grains, oilseeds, pulses, spices, milk, coffee, meat, poultry, tea & animal feed.
4.What is AgNext’s future technological and business roadmap?
We are aiming to significantly expand our commodities portfolio to penetrate newer commodity markets. AgNext plans to strengthen its foothold in the existing markets of the Indian sub-continent and SEA by penetrating the existing client base via deployment of more products and services. We will embed our quality assaying suite and leverage acquired firms’ regional network to grow our business. Expanding our capabilities from NIR and computer vision, AgNext aims to develop NMR, SERS based quality technology solutions to unlock more value for clients and expand commodity spectrum to grain derivatives, oils, honey, aromatics, aqua, meat and proteins.
- What is the scope of deep-technology in post-harvest Agriculture?
In the agricultural industry, the potential for technological interventions to address persistent legacy issues affecting the food trade is enormous. AI, IoT, and data analytics can be used to drive digital transformation in both pre-harvest and post-harvest agriculture.
Artificial intelligence addressing the agricultural difficulties has the ability to not only address persistent legacy issues but also open up a wide range of prospects for the ecosystem as a whole. Despite the recent rise in technology-driven interventions and advancements, agriculture continues to be one of the most tech agnostic industries in the modern world. Therefore, the need of the hour is to not just innovate, but to also create awareness about the plethora of benefits that deep-tech will bring to the agri stakeholders.
The agriculture industry is once again on the edge of revolution as a result of the anticipated shift from traditional to advanced tech-driven methods, and we as the change-makers, are at the center of the upheaval. Using the trifecta of AI, IoT, and data analytics for agriculture 4.0, it is undoubtedly an exciting moment to be a techie working in the developing agritech sector and participating in the transformational growth story of the traditional systems.
