A Bihar farmer's son. IIT Delhi. ₹15 lakh. 13 years. ₹3,041 crore revenue. ₹369 crore profit. India's agritech finally proves the model.
Shashank Kumar grew up watching Bihar's farmers work harder than anyone and earn less than almost anyone. He left IIT Delhi, left his consulting career, and started DeHaat in Patna with ₹15 lakh and four friends from IIT, NIT, and ISM. Thirteen years later: 11,000 rural centres, 1.8 million farmers, 12 states, $270M raised from Sofina, Temasek, and Prosus — and the first major profit in India's agritech history.
Shashank Kumar & DeHaat Founding Team
Co-Founders · DeHaat / Green Agrevolution
A Boy From Bihar, a 3am Call With Farmers, and ₹15 Lakh
Shashank Kumar grew up in Chhapra, Bihar — the state most associated with Indian agriculture's deepest dysfunctions, where 90% of farmers are small and marginal, where middlemen take 40–60% of the value of every crop, where inputs are expensive, frequently adulterated, and sold without advice, and where the gap between farm gate price and retail price represents one of India's most persistent forms of structural inequality.
His father worked at the Bihar National Electricity Board. His mother taught school. He attended Netarhat Residential School — one of India's finest government residential schools — and earned a place at IIT Delhi, graduating with a B.Tech in Textile Technology in 2008. He joined Beacon Advisory Services as a supply chain consultant, spending two and a half years advising FMCG and retail companies on procurement and distribution. And every time he went home to Bihar, he talked to farmers. The same conversation, every time: the seeds don't work, the fertiliser is fake or mis-prescribed, nobody helps with pests and disease, and when the crop comes, a middleman decides what it is worth.
"I used to feel extremely bad that farmers are working very hard, but the return is not proportional," Shashank told YourStory. In 2010, he left his job and founded FarmsnFarmers Foundation — a non-profit — with ₹15 lakh scraped together from the founding team. Two years later, he and his friends Shyam Sundar Singh (IIT Kharagpur, IIM Ahmedabad), Amrendra Singh (NIT Jamshedpur), Adarsh Srivastava (ISM Dhanbad), and Abhishek Dokania (IIPM) formally incorporated Green Agrevolution Pvt. Ltd. They gave their model a name: DeHaat. It means 'village' in Hindi. The name was not an accident.
The Micro-Entrepreneur Model, $115M and 60x Growth
The architectural insight that made DeHaat defensible — and that no VC-backed agritech app has been able to replicate — was the decision to build through local micro-entrepreneurs rather than central distribution. Each DeHaat Centre is owned and run by a local person: a trusted community figure who provides agri-inputs, delivers crop advisory, and connects farmers to output markets within a 3–8 km radius. This is not a franchise — the micro-entrepreneur has skin in the game, knows the farmers personally, and is accountable to the outcomes. At scale, this creates a distribution network that no e-commerce approach can duplicate for a population that does not, as Shashank noted in 2016, have high smartphone penetration.
The technology layered on top of this human network was always AI-first. DeHaat's crop advisory system — personalised recommendations for pest and disease management across 30+ crops, delivered in regional languages via mobile app and call centre — was built in-house over years, drawing on India's most comprehensive database of farm-level pest incidents and crop outcomes. The platform processes queries from 1.8 million farmers through a combination of call centre agents and automated AI responses, with escalation protocols for unusual crop conditions.
Sofina and Lightrock India's $115 million Series D in October 2021 — India's largest agritech funding round at the time — was the institutional validation of a thesis that had been building since 2012. By then, DeHaat had achieved 60x revenue growth in 40 months, serving a million farmers across Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, and Odisha. Temasek joined at Series E in December 2022. The company that Shashank started with ₹15 lakh in a rented office in Patna was now one of the most significant agricultural technology companies ever built in Asia.
₹3,041 Crore Revenue, ₹369 Crore Profit and What It Means
The FY2025 financial results published by DeHaat changed the narrative of Indian agritech entirely. ₹3,041 crore in revenue. ₹369 crore in net profit. For a sector that had been written off as capital-intensive, structurally loss-making, and dependent on perpetual fundraising, the numbers are not just a milestone for DeHaat — they are a proof of model for every farmer-focused technology company that comes after.
The profitability was not an accident of revenue growth. Total expenses fell from ₹3,853 crore in FY24 to ₹2,671 crore in FY25 — a 31% reduction driven by cost discipline, reduced employee costs (₹175 crore, down 15%), and a fundamental improvement in the unit economics of the DeHaat Centre model. The Trifecta Capital ₹200 crore venture debt in April 2025 — raised as a profitable company, not a loss-making one — signals that India's agritech infrastructure story is entering a new phase.
Shashank Kumar's journey from a Bihar farm family to IIT Delhi, to Beacon Advisory, to a ₹15 lakh bootstrap in Patna, to 11,000 rural centres serving 1.8 million farmers across 12 states, mirrors the journey of the Indian agricultural sector itself: deeply rooted in the hardest terrain, building capacity over decades rather than quarters, and delivering outcomes that the market had long been told were impossible. The ₹369 crore profit is the most important data point in Indian agritech history. It says: this works.
"I used to feel extremely bad that farmers are working very hard, but the return is not proportional. The problem is structural — it is about inputs, advisory, and markets all failing the farmer at the same time. DeHaat's mission is to solve all three simultaneously, for every farmer in India, at the last mile."
— Shashank Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, DeHaat
Company Timeline
- 2008–2010
Shashank Kumar graduates from IIT Delhi (B.Tech Textile Technology, 2008) — having grown up in Chhapra, Bihar, the son of a Bihar electricity board employee and a schoolteacher, attending Netarhat Residential School. He joins Beacon Advisory Services as a supply chain consultant, advising FMCG and retail clients for two and a half years — and begins returning to Bihar, talking to farmers. What he hears is consistent: middlemen capture most of the value, inputs are expensive and fake, and no one talks to farmers about crops the way they deserve.
- 2010–12
Shashank founds FarmsnFarmers Foundation (FnF) — a non-profit registered under the Society Registration Act — to help farmers adopt better cropping patterns, market their produce, and maximise profit per acre. He begins recruiting friends from IIT Kharagpur, NIT Jamshedpur, and ISM Dhanbad: Manish Kumar, Amrendra Singh, Shyam Sundar Singh, Adarsh Srivastava, and Abhishek Dokania join over the following months. Green Agrevolution Pvt. Ltd. is incorporated in 2012 — the commercial entity behind the DeHaat brand.
- 2012–16
Bootstrapped with ₹15 lakh. DeHaat launches in Bihar and Odisha with 5 nodes and 30 DeHaat Centres serving 10,200 farmers across 11 Bihar districts. The model: local micro-entrepreneurs run each DeHaat Centre, providing seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, crop advisory, and market linkage to 600–1,000 farmers within a 6–8 km radius. Companies including DuPont Pioneer, Bayer, Syngenta, UPL, and Seminis sell inputs through DeHaat; buyers like ITC, Godrej, Cargill, and Reliance Fresh buy output. Revenue: ₹7 crore FY2016. First external funding from NABARD's Rural Innovation Fund.
- 2019–20
Series A: $12M from Omnivore Partners, Sequoia Capital India, FMO (Netherlands development bank), and AgFunder. DeHaat expands to UP, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. 360,000 farmers on platform. 1,300+ micro-entrepreneurs. 4,000+ agricultural input products available. AI-powered crop advisory launched — delivering pest and disease management guidance via mobile app and call centre in regional languages. Shashank Kumar named Forbes 30 Under 30, Ashoka Fellow, and PM Champions of Change.
- Oct 2021
Series D: $115 million led by Sofina (Belgium's most respected family-owned investment holding) and Lightrock India — India's largest agritech funding round at the time. Prosus Ventures (Naspers) and RTP Global (backed Zoom, Bumble) co-invest. Total raised: ~$160M. DeHaat now serves 1 million+ farmers. 60x revenue growth over 40 months documented. Acquisitions begin: YCook India, FieldFresh Foods, Helicrofter, AgriCentral, and others folded in over 18 months to strengthen output and processing capabilities.
- Dec 2022
Series E: $60M raised from Temasek Holdings (Singapore's sovereign wealth fund), Sofina Ventures, RTP Global, Prosus Ventures, and Lightrock India. Total equity raised crosses $222M. CEO Shashank Kumar: '60x growth of DeHaat in the last 40 months has laid a foundation for a clear path to profitability.' Revenue: ₹1,965 crore FY23. Targeted EBITDA breakeven within 12 months. 2.5M farmer target set for March 2023.
- FY25 — Profitability
DeHaat reports ₹3,041 crore revenue for FY2025 — 11% growth from ₹2,720 crore in FY24. The headline number that transforms the story: ₹369 crore net profit — India's first major agritech company to turn consistently profitable at this scale. Total expenses fall to ₹2,671 crore from ₹3,853 crore in FY24. Employee costs reduced 15% to ₹175 crore. The cost discipline that DeHaat learned across four restructuring cycles delivers the most important number the Indian agritech sector has ever posted.
- Apr 2025
₹200 crore (~$23.4M) venture debt raised from Trifecta Capital — India's leading venture debt firm. Total capital deployed since founding: $300M+. Valuation: $700M–800M, approaching unicorn status. 1.8 million farmers. 12 states. 11,000+ DeHaat Centres. 503 FPOs. AI advisory for 30+ crops in regional languages. 600+ institutional buyers. The platform that began with ₹15 lakh and 30 centres in Bihar is now India's most consequential agritech infrastructure company.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a DeHaat Centre and how does the micro-entrepreneur model work?
A DeHaat Centre is a last-mile agricultural services point run by a local micro-entrepreneur — typically a trusted community member who lives within the served village cluster. Each centre covers 600–1,000 farmers in a 3–8 km radius. The micro-entrepreneur stocks agri-inputs (seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, cattle feed), provides advisory through DeHaat's digital systems and call centre support, and facilitates output aggregation and buyer connections. Unlike a franchise, the micro-entrepreneur earns directly from the transactions they facilitate — creating genuine accountability and local trust. DeHaat trains and certifies each micro-entrepreneur and provides the technology platform, supply chain access, and buyer relationships. With 11,000+ such centres across 12 states, DeHaat has built India's most extensive farmer-facing rural distribution network.
What acquisitions has DeHaat made and why?
DeHaat has acquired six companies to date: YCook India (food processing), FieldFresh Foods (agri-output processing and distribution), Helicrofter (western India market access), and AgriCentral (farmer advisory and app user base). The acquisition strategy follows a clear logic: DeHaat's core model is end-to-end farmer services, but end-to-end means the company must control or influence every part of the value chain — from the input manufacturer to the consumer plate. Acquisitions in processing and output help DeHaat capture value that would otherwise leak to third parties, improve farm-gate prices for farmers, and create sticky long-term relationships with institutional buyers like ITC, Cargill, and Reliance Fresh.
How does DeHaat use AI in crop advisory and what crops does it cover?
DeHaat's AI crop advisory system provides personalised recommendations for 30+ crops including rice, wheat, maize, mustard, sugarcane, vegetables, and pulses. The system draws on DeHaat's proprietary crop pest and disease database — built from 12+ years of farm-level data across millions of advisory interactions. Farmers describe symptoms through the app, call centre, or DeHaat Centre, and receive AI-generated advice cross-referenced with current weather, soil type, crop stage, and regional pest outbreak alerts. Advisory is delivered in regional languages including Hindi, Bhojpuri, Odia, Bengali, and others. Farmers using the advisory system report 20% productivity gains and 10–15% input cost savings compared to unadvised farming.
Is DeHaat considering an IPO?
As of early 2026, DeHaat has not publicly announced IPO plans. However, with ₹3,041 crore in FY25 revenue, ₹369 crore profit, and a $700–800M valuation approaching unicorn status, the company now has the financial profile required for a public listing. The April 2025 Trifecta Capital venture debt — raised as a profitable company — suggests DeHaat is focused on consolidating and scaling its existing geographic presence before pursuing an IPO. The $115M Series D's CEO statement — 'two-thirds of capital still to be deployed' — implied the company was not yet optimised. The FY25 profit suggests that optimisation is now complete. An IPO within 24–36 months of March 2026 is widely anticipated by institutional investors.