Profile characteristics of agri-startups in Andhra Pradesh state

Despite being referred to as India’s backbone, the agriculture industry continues to fall behind. It accounts for 16.5 per cent of Agri-to-GDP ratio relative to global 6.40 per cent and employs nearly 47.50 per cent of the workforce. The sector has been stymied by difficulties ranging from low yield to old operational processes that restrict farmers’ economic wellbeing. Several Agri-Startups have popped up around the country to address these issues. The present study was conducted to document the profile status of Agri-Startups. The sample of study comprised of randomly drawn 44 Agri-Startup entrepreneurs across Andhra Pradesh State following multistage stratified sampling method. The study indicated that majority of the Startups (54.55%) belonged to ‘Agri-Tech’ sector and were present in ‘validation stage’ of growth (36.36%) and around 41 per cent of them were providing products/services in the areas of ‘precision agriculture’. Nearly 45 per cent of the Agri-Startups were acquainted with incubator programs and more than 50 per cent of the Startup entrepreneurs had attended only one training program related to their Startup. Additionally, more than 90 per cent of the respondents had ‘bootstrapping fund’ as the major source of funding. The findings of the study provide managerial implications for policy makers as they would lend support to utilize the database available on profile characters of Agri-Startups and entrepreneurs notably in the area of strategic entrepreneurship.