For many Indian farmers, agriculture advice still travels through informal networks. A farmer may ask a nearby retailer about pesticide dosage, call a local trader for mandi prices, or depend on neighboring farmers to identify a crop disease.
Krishify, a Gurugram-based agritech startup, is trying to bring many of those interactions onto a mobile app.
Founded in 2019, the company operates a vernacular social networking and agriculture platform where farmers can watch videos, ask crop-related questions, interact with experts, discover agricultural products, and connect with buyers and sellers.
The startup describes itself as a “farmer community platform,” but in practice the product combines several layers: short-form agricultural content, expert crop advisory, farmer discussion forums, agri-commerce discovery, and SaaS tools for agribusiness companies.
Krishify was founded by Rajesh Ranjan, Manish Agrawal, and Avinash Kumar.
The founders started the company after noticing that a new generation of internet users in rural India was rapidly coming online through smartphones and regional-language video content. Krishify was built around the idea that agriculture users also needed a dedicated digital ecosystem.
Unlike many agritech startups focused purely on farm-input sales or supply-chain logistics, Krishify’s early focus was community-building.
The app allows farmers to post photos and videos, ask questions about crop diseases, share farming techniques, and follow agricultural creators and experts. The company supports multiple Indian languages and uses short video heavily as an engagement format.
A typical user workflow inside the app looks closer to a social-media feed than a traditional agriculture portal. Farmers scroll through crop videos, weather updates, dairy farming clips, machinery demonstrations, and advisory content posted by experts or fellow farmers. Users can also upload images of damaged crops and seek guidance from “crop doctors,” which is the company’s term for agriculture advisors available through the platform.
The company says the app also provides: localized weather information, market updates, crop advisory, livestock-related content, and agricultural equipment discovery.
Over time, Krishify expanded beyond community features into business tools for agribusiness companies. Its Krishify Business Suite functions as a SaaS platform that helps fertilizer companies, seed firms, pesticide brands, and agricultural-input businesses engage with farmers digitally.
The company also operates FARMWISE, a cloud-based system focused on sustainability and traceability programs for agribusinesses and food companies. According to Krishify’s services page, the platform is designed to help organizations monitor cultivation practices and provide real-time advisories to partner farmers.
This expansion reflects a broader trend in agritech where startups initially focused on farmer engagement later develop B2B tools for agriculture companies looking to digitize rural outreach.
Krishify’s growth has been relatively fast compared to many agriculture-content startups.
In August 2021, the company announced a $2.7 million pre-Series A funding round led by Omidyar Network India, Ankur Capital, and Orios Ventures. Angel investors included Country Delight co-founders Nitin Kaushal and Chakradhar Gade.
Krishify’s market positioning is unusual because it sits between multiple agriculture categories rather than operating as a single-function product.
Some agritech startups focus only on advisory services. Others specialize in supply chains, credit, or e-commerce. Krishify instead operates closer to a rural internet platform.
Globally, there are parallels with companies building farmer-information ecosystems and digital agricultural communities.
US-based Farmers Business Network combines farmer networking with agricultural intelligence and commerce tools. Africa-focused platforms like Hello Tractor connect farmers to mechanization services digitally. China has also seen large agriculture livestreaming ecosystems emerge on platforms linked to rural commerce.
In India, Krishify competes more directly with platforms such as: DeHaat, AgroStar, Gramophone, and Kisan Network.
But its strongest differentiation remains its social-media-style engagement model.
Most agriculture apps struggle with retention because farmers open them only when they need a specific service. Krishify attempts to solve that by building habitual engagement through short videos, discussions, and creator-led content.
The company also benefits from broader structural changes in rural internet usage.
Cheap smartphones, regional-language interfaces, lower mobile-data costs, and rising video consumption have created a large digital audience in rural India. Agriculture is increasingly becoming part of that content economy.
Krishify’s own campaigns show how this model is being commercialized. The larger challenge for platforms like Krishify is monetization.
Farmer-focused apps often achieve strong user growth but struggle to convert engagement into sustainable revenue. Agriculture users are highly cost-sensitive, and rural digital advertising remains relatively underdeveloped compared to urban internet markets.
That is partly why many agritech platforms eventually diversify into SaaS, marketplace commissions, financial services, or supply-chain tools.
Krishify appears to be following a similar path by combining farmer engagement with enterprise products for agribusiness companies.
- Our correspondent
