Kedar Gokhale, the former vice president of operations at Swiggy, has announced the launch of his new agritech venture, Orbit Farming.
With this move, Gokhale aims to establish a platform offering agricultural solutions specifically tailored for mid-sized Indian farmers who own 2 to 10 hectares of farmland.
The Swiggy executive has partnered with Aishwarya Ramakrishnan, former head of strategy, growth, and operations at Krish-e, to initiate the project. Krish-e, established in 2020, serves as an omnichannel marketplace catering to various agricultural requirements.
Taking to LinkedIn, the erstwhile Swiggy executive announced, “After an enriching 6 year journey at Swiggy, I am starting up again in a sector that has always fascinated me -> agriculture! Happy to partner with Aishwarya Ramakrishnan in this journey as we zero in on an idea and launch Orbit Farming.”
With the new venture, the duo endeavors to support mid-sized farmers in enhancing their farm income.
“We are building India’s largest farming mechanisation solutions platform enabling mid-sized farms to achieve higher profitability,” Gokhale added in his post.
Meanwhile, as per Orbit Farming’s LinkedIn page, the startup seeks to close the divide between conventional farming methods and contemporary, technology-driven solutions.
Continue Exploring: Shilpa Shetty-backed agritech startup KisanKonnect secures INR 31 Crore in pre-series A funding led by Green Frontier Capital
Presently, Gokhale and Ramakrishnan are actively recruiting to assemble a founding team aligned with their mission of empowering mid-sized farms.
During his tenure at Swiggy, Gokhale spearheaded recruitment, retention, engagement, and fleet (delivery partners) sufficiency at the hyperlocal level for Swiggy Food and Instamart.
Before joining Swiggy in 2017, the IIT Bombay alumnus had founded Truce-True Price, an agritech startup, in 2015.
On the flip side, Ramakrishnan had been involved with Mahindra’s agritech business, Krish-e, for a duration of three and a half years before ultimately resigning in 2022.
With this, the co-founders have become part of a growing trend among Indian executives, leaving their existing company roles to launch new ventures.
Last week, Gautam Sinha, the former chief executive of Times Internet, launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) venture called SimpleO.ai.
More recently, Karthik Gurumurthy, the mastermind behind Swiggy Instamart, successfully raised $3 million (approximately INR 25 crore) for his latest offline retail venture, Convenio. The new platform is set to operate in the offline domain and will emulate the model of Swiggy.
Continue Exploring: Karthik Gurumurthy secures $3 Million funding led by Matrix Partners India for innovative fresh produce retail venture ‘Convenio’