Cricketer Ajinkya Rahane Announces ₹ 1 Crore Seed Fund for Agritech Startups

Popular cricketer Ajinkya Rahane announced a seed fund of ₹ 1 crore for agritech startups as Indian agriculture is rapidly gaining attention with the immense opportunities it holds. Rahane's vision is to directly benefit the farmers and this initiative will be accomplished through his company 'Ajinkya Rahane & Associates'.

A committee of Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) will help in shortlisting the startups as they have expertise in legal, tech, agriculture and allied areas of agriculture. 

Deemed as one of the oldest Chambers of commerce in India, MCCIA was established in 1934 by Atmaram Raoji Bhat, and is one of the few trade associations that came into existence before the Indian independence.

The first investment is to be made by December 2022 followed by three more investments by March of next year.

Rahane said, “Farmers are our heroes and I have always wanted to contribute to their financial empowerment. I have made few investments from this fund before; However, I was looking for an institutionalized and structured form of funding for agri-tech start-ups. Even though the funding will be in the form of equity, I am not looking at monetary returns."

Image – Ajinkya Rahane @twitter

MCCIA has partnered with Indian cricketer Ajinkya Rahane and his associates to fund several startups that are developing tech-based solutions for agriculture.

As per a report by Krishi Jagran citing MCCIA team, three more individuals, in addition to Rahane, have expressed interest in investing in the fund.

The startups to be funded by Rahane will be curated by MCCIA which comprises legal, finance, technology, and agriculture domain experts.

MCCIA is aiming to exhaust the seed capital put up right now by November 2023.

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