Now when AI and Digitalization have become today’s need, tech giant Microsoft came up with a program to accelerate the growth of Agri-tech startups in India.  

Agritech startups are transforming the agriculture practices in India using digital technology to maximize production, improve market linkages, increase supply chain efficiency, and provide greater access to inputs for agri-businesses. The  Microsoft program for Agritech startup is designed to help startups build industry-specific solutions, scale, and grow with access to deep technology, business, and marketing resources.

These startups can also get access to Azure FarmBeats, which can help them focus on core value-adds instead of the undifferentiated heavy lifting of data engineering. Available on the Azure Marketplace, Azure FarmBeats enables aggregation of agricultural datasets across providers and generation of actionable insights by building AI/ML models based on fused datasets.

Sustainable agricultural technology can transform the global food landscape. Agritech startup innovations are addressing some of our key challenges connected to agriculture and food production. The Microsoft for Agritech Startups program is among the early steps in our journey towards empowering these startups in India and transforming global agricultural practices,” said Sangeeta Bavi, Director, Startup Ecosystem, Microsoft India.

Divided in three tiers, program offers:

All startups: Qualified Seed to Series C startups can boost their businesses with Azure benefits (including free credits), unlimited technical support, and help with Azure Marketplace onboarding.

Co-sell startups: Startups with enterprise-ready solutions can scale quickly with joint go-to-market strategies, technical support, and new sales opportunities with Microsoft’s partner ecosystem.

Co-create solutions: Startups that are looking to create digital agriculture solutions have the opportunity to co-build customized solutions with Azure FarmBeats without investing in deep data engineering resources. Using Azure FarmBeats, startups can acquire, aggregate, and process agricultural data and rapidly develop their own AI/ML models.

https://news.microsoft.com/en-in/microsoft-agritech-startups-program-india-launch/