Prateek Rastogi, a resident of Lucknow, has started such a startup, which has taken up the task of providing nutrition to all. He is replacing yield based farming with quality and nutrition based farming. In today’s time, every farmer is giving emphasis on increasing the yield. All the companies are also working keeping the yield in mind. But in today’s time, there is a need for such a crop, which is of quality. A startup Greenday has understood this problem.green day), which is working towards increasing the quality of the crop instead of increasing the crop yield of the farmers. This company was started only in March 2017, but for 3 years the company kept understanding the market under the pilot project. In January 2020, the company started business in a commercial manner and started working on the ‘ Kisan Ki Dukan’ concept.
Left the package of 28 lakhs, chose agriculture
GreenDay was started by Prateek Rastogi , who is a resident of Lucknow , UP. There are two more co-founders of this startup. The first is Aishwarya Bhatnagar , who heads marketing, and the second is Ankur Srivastava , who heads operations. After completing his schooling, Prateek moved to Delhi, where he studied economic honors from Shri Ram College of Commerce. He also got a chance to study from the London School of Economics. Not only this, he did MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and learned the tricks of business.
He also got a big offer on the very first day of placement. He was placed in a consulting firm in 2016 itself on a package of around 28 lakhs. However, after working for a year, he decided to start his own business and started Greenday in 2017. Prateek says that he got to learn in IIM that he has to become a job provider. We have to try to solve all those problems of India which a common man is not able to do. At the same time, people in his family were already doing business, so this also inspired him to do business.
Why chose agriculture sector only?
Prateek Rastogi noticed that there is a huge gap in the agriculture sector. Every farmer is focusing only on yield based farming. The quality of grains produced in such a way was not nutritious. Then he thought why not work on such a model, under which quality crops can be produced and the fertility of the soil can also be increased.
To eliminate this gap, farmers are given seeds of biofortified variety, so that their crops get more nutrition. It has been revealed from many reports that many people in India are deficient in zinc and iron, this deficiency can be removed by increasing their nutrition in crops. Under Greenday, first of all, the seed of the farmer is changed, due to which the quality of his crop increases. At the same time, bacterial based fertilizer is given to the farmer and efforts are made to reduce the use of chemical based fertilizer. In this way the fertility of the soil also increases.
What is the benefit to farmers and common people?
Farmers benefit from this model of farming that their crop is sold at a higher price because of its high quality. The use of bacterial-based fertilizers also increases the fertility of the field, which greatly benefits the farmer in the future. If farmers completely turn to organic farming, then there is a huge loss in yield in the first one or two years. On the other hand, in the Greenday model, the loss of yield is very less, which is easily compensated due to the higher price. Greenday uses bacterial based fertilizers in the field in a four-stage process, 25% in the first year, 50% in the second year, 75% in the third year and 100% in the fourth year. In such a situation, there is no big loss on the yield.
Greenday is giving franchisee in zero franchise fee
Greenday is currently giving the franchisee of ‘ Kisan Ki Dukan ‘ center in ‘ Zero Franchisee Fee ‘, under which the shop is opened in the nearest areas of the farmers. In this, all the things needed by the farmers are provided by selling seeds, fertilizers, pesticides. Its franchise is given to the students who have done BSE or MSE from Agriculture. If you do not have a degree and still want to take a franchisee, then you can apply for 6 months training or diploma under the agricultural program run by the government. Training is also given to every operator on behalf of Greenday, so that he can understand the problem of the farmer and give him the right medicine, fertilizer or seed.
What is the business model of startup?
Startups earn mainly in 2 ways. The first income is earned by selling all the products and the second income is earned through services. Under Greenday, farmers are provided with services like soil testing and crop insurance. The franchisee is given on behalf of the company in ‘Zero Franchisee Fee’, but the operator has to deposit Rs 3 lakh as a security deposit. If you want to separate from Greenday sometime in the future, then your 3 lakh rupees are given back to you.
The operator not only gets the franchisee in ‘Zero Franchisee Fee’, but there is no need to think about GST, licensing, tax etc. Greenday’s model is actually a revenue split model. Under this, 12-15 percent of the revenue that is generated reaches the operator’s account on the 5th of every month.
How much funding has been received and what is the revenue?
So far GreenDay has not only received funding from investors, it has also received grants from the government. So far, Greenday has received a grant of about Rs 20 lakh from the government. At the same time, this startup has already taken funding of about Rs 3.15 crore . In the year 2023, Greenday is trying to raise funding of about Rs 100 crore. At present, the valuation of this startup is around Rs 26 ($ 3.1 million) crores . Last year their ‘turnover’ was 3.4 crores and the company had received funding of 3.1 crores from reputed investors. The company is poised for 5X growth this year and is planning to get fresh investments soon for further expansion. So far in 2022-23, a revenue of about Rs 9 crore has been made and by the end of the year, the company will earn a revenue of more than Rs 10 crore.
There are no less challenges in this path
There are many challenges on the way to Greenday. The biggest challenge is that people have been doing farming in all the villages in a traditional way. He has always been buying seeds and fertilizers from the nearby shop. In such a situation, first of all it is a big challenge to win their trust and sell your goods to them. Most of the farmers are less educated, due to which it is not easy to convince them. The biggest challenge comes from the chemical fertilizer companies who talk about seeing the effect immediately and the farmers turn towards them.
At present Greenday has about 50 stores. In the coming year, the company wants to open 200-250 such stores. There is a plan to open 5000 new stores in the next 5 years. The target of the company is to provide employment to about 5000 youths through the farmer’s shop in 5 years. Under Green Day, work is being done on a plan to bring about 5-10 lakh new farmers into modern farming. Along with this, we also want to motivate the retailers associated with the farmers that instead of yield based farming, quality based farming should be done. Not only this, the company itself also wants to enter FMCG. In the coming time, the company is also thinking of bringing its own brand of flour, rice, pulses etc.
Source: yourstory.com
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