- Digitisation to enable an increase in yield and profitability of dairy farmers, reduce milk wastage and achieve scale.
- The partnership opens opportunities for millions of dairy farmers in India.
MUMBAI, India, Feb. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DBS Bank India announced that it has partnered with Stellapps, a leading dairy-tech startup, as its banking partner to promote digitisation amongst small dairies across India. This initiative aligns with DBS' commitment to supporting lives and livelihoods through better business and responsible financing. The partnership is expected to indirectly benefit 20,000 farmers at present and around 100,000+ dairy farmers in the near future.
India is the largest milk producer globally, with ~188 million MT production in 2019-20, and approximately 70 million farmers are directly involved in dairying[1]. Digitisation of the dairy value chain is expected to improve productivity and quality of milk, transparency and traceability in the supply chain, and improve incomes and financial inclusion amongst dairy farmers.
Stellapps, through its IoT-based solutions and digital data, offers cloud-based grading of milk, which brings in transparency for the farmers in respect of the quantity and quality of milk supplied and the income derived from it. Stellapps' digital milk procurement system currently aids 250 dairy processors, touches over 2.8 million dairy farmers, and provides digital data on over 13 million litres of milk per day. Given the investments involved, a significant number of the dairies are not keen to deploy a digital structure. Hence, they opt to lease Stellapps' digital network.
As a partner to Stellapps, DBS will digitally help organise the highly fragmented dairy sector. Stellapps Digital Network and DBS Bank will provide dairy farmers with access to funds required for digitisation. This partnership builds on the Government's Digital India vision.
Divyesh Dalal, Head- Global Transaction Services, DBS Bank India, said, "Our focus is to develop tech-enabled solutions that directly impact efficiency across the supply chain. Our partnership with Stellapps has allowed us to work on an enabling solution that will benefit the dairies and farmers. The collaborative effort has resulted in a solution that drives higher yield, increased efficiency, and overall visibility across intermediaries. We believe this solution will benefit the larger ecosystem and help build parallels across the Agri value chain."
Commenting on the partnership, Rahul Mallick, CEO-FinTech & VAS, Stellapps, said, "At Stellapps, we aspire to simplify the lives of dairy farmers by leveraging technology and digitalisation to help them improve their incomes and get access to tailor-made 'sachet' sized financial products and services. The banking partnership with DBS Bank will go a long way in solving this hurdle and will help onboard more dairy companies onto our platform. DBS was chosen due to its digitisation prowess and physical reach across India. We are confident that this partnership will start to show results in the immediate term and will be a significant step in our business journey as well."
DBS has been supporting like-minded ecosystem partners who are motivated to make positive impacts in sustainable food and agricultural systems to reduce food waste. In the Agri sector, DBS is working to create more sustainable supply chains, reducing wastage for suppliers and processors. DBS is developing innovative and relevant solutions to encourage corporates and SMEs to adopt sustainable practices, including a transition Towards Zero Food Waste (TZFW) operations. The partnership with Stellapps aligns with DBS's vision for a TZFW future as digitisation will optimise supply, help minimise wastage, and improve financial inclusion.
DBS has been proactive in identifying customer needs and creating customised banking solutions for large enterprises as well as small and medium businesses to meet their end-to-end requirement. In 2020, DBS introduced a completely digital and innovative payments solution for Transport Corporation of India Limited (TCI). The solution enables TCI to make real-time payments into the bank accounts of the fleet operators and drivers, eliminating the need to travel to a local centre to collect payments. Recently, the bank partnered with ODeX to introduce ODeX Pay Later Solutions powered by DBS - a hassle-free credit solution for freight forwarders. DBS has also launched real-time online tracking for cross-border collections for businesses in India in partnership with SWIFT Global Payments Innovation (gpi).
About DBS
DBS is a leading financial services group in Asia with a presence in 18 markets. Recognised for its global leadership, DBS has been named "World's Best Bank" by Euromoney, "Global Bank of the Year" by The Banker and "Best Bank in the World" by Global Finance. The bank is at the forefront of leveraging digital technology to shape the future of banking, having been named "World's Best Digital Bank" by Euromoney and the world's "Most Innovative in Digital Banking" by The Banker. In addition, DBS has been accorded the "Safest Bank in Asia" award by Global Finance for 13 consecutive years from 2009 to 2021. DBS was also ranked No. 1 on Forbes' list of the World's Best Banks in India for two consecutive years.
DBS Bank has been present in India for 28 years, opening its first office in Mumbai in 1994. DBS Bank India Limited is the first among the large foreign banks in India to start operating as a wholly-owned, locally incorporated subsidiary of a leading global bank. DBS provides an entire range of banking services for large, medium and small enterprises and individual consumers in India. In 2016, DBS launched India's first mobile-only bank – digibank, which now has ~1 million savings accounts. In November 2020, Lakshmi Vilas Bank was amalgamated with DBS Bank India Limited. The bank now has a network of nearly 600 branches across 19 states in India.
DBS provides a full range of services in consumer, SME and corporate banking. As a bank born and bred in Asia, DBS understands the intricacies of doing business in the region's most dynamic markets. DBS is committed to building lasting relationships with customers and positively impacting communities through supporting social enterprises, as it banks the Asian way. It has also established an SGD 50 million foundation to strengthen its corporate social responsibility efforts in Singapore and across Asia. In 2020, DBS introduced the "Towards Zero Food Waste" initiative as part of a global sustainability practice to encourage a shift in behaviours and mindsets to reduce food waste.
With its extensive network of operations in Asia and emphasis on engaging and empowering its staff, DBS presents exciting career opportunities. The bank acknowledges the passion, commitment and can-do spirit of our 30,000+ staff representing over 40 nationalities. For more information, please visit www.dbs.com.
About Stellapps
Stellapps is a one-stop dairy supply chain digitisation service provider which drives dairy productivity across the supply chain by providing insights around cattle monitoring, milk procurement, and cold chain management. It leverages advanced analytics and artificial intelligence through its full-stack IoT platform that enables the digitisation of granular primary data from the farm to the dairy during the milk procurement process. This enables its numerous dairy ecosystem partnerships to drive significant value for each smallholder farmer and dairies in the villages where they operate.
Through its customer base, which includes all major private & cooperative dairies, Stellapps currently digitises over 13 million litres of milk worth USD 3.4 million each day and directly impacts 2.8 million dairy farmers in over 35,000 Indian villages across 15 states. For more information, visit Stellapps.com, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
[1] CII-Yes Bank Knowledge Paper on Indian Dairy Beyond 75 - Role of digitalisation & technology in Dairy Supply Chain
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