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Aquaculture fintech startup, AquaExchange has raised $3 Mn in its Pre-Series A funding round from Endiya Partners and Accion Venture Lab.  

AquaExchange will use the funds to strengthen its technology and ecommerce operations along with expanding its farm automation services.

Commenting on the fundraising, Dr Ramesh Byrapaneni, managing director of Endiya Partners, said,  “We are excited to back AquaExchange in their vision to transform the aquaculture landscape in India and globally to benefit a large number of aqua farmers. AquaExchange will not only help bring in efficiencies across the aquaculture value chain but also generate data-driven insights to bring in access to formal credit.”

Founded in 2020 by Pavan Kosaraju, the Andhra Pradesh-based startup envisions to revolutionise aquafarming in India and across the globe. To help improve aquafarmers’ productivity, it offers a fintech-enabled ecommerce platform, farm automation and monitoring tool called NextAqua and a market linkage platform that helps small farmers accurately price their harvest and sell it in the market. It aims to offer farm automation services to more than 1 Lakh acres of farms by FY23.

Pavan Kosaraju, founder of AquaExchange, said, “At AquaExchange, the key focus is on adding value to the aquaculture farming process through the use of advanced technology. Our IoT devices and automatic feeders have been installed at scale and are helping farmers with higher efficiencies in terms of aeration and feed management while at the same time providing RoI within the first quarter of usage.”

AquaExchange’s core team holds experience of working in growth-stage startups, consulting, industrial design, and manufacturing. 

AquaExchange has got patent rights for its power management tool-PowerMon and feed management tool-AquaBot. PowerMon helps farmers in monitoring their farm and controlling aeration via a mobile app whilst AquaBot allows farmers to efficiently feed their ponds and meanwhile, maintain good feed conversion ratios.

Earlier this year, AquaExchange merged with NextAqua’s founders Kareem and Kiran.

In India’s fintech sector, which is poised to reach a $1.3 Tn mark by 2025, Aquaculture faces competition from the likes of WeRize, Stashfin, and GetVantage that recently secured $36 Mn in a strategic funding round.