Agrochemicals maker Safex Chemicals Ltd announced plans to invest Rs 100 crore in AgCare Technologies, its new agritech arm, over the next three to four years to build an interactive tech platform and establish a manufacturing facility.
Speaking to PTI, the company’s Group Director, Piyush Jindal, said, “We are investing Rs 100 crore from our own kitty. We are not raising any funds. The investment is planned for the next 3-4 years.”
The objective is to introduce an interactive technology platform that will integrate the entire agri economy value chain. According to Jindal, key stakeholders, particularly farmers, can use this platform to acquire quality crop protection products and receive services like weather information, expert assistance, and mandi rates.
“A pilot study of this interactive tech platform will be conducted in January-March. We plan to go live in the next fiscal year,” Jindal said, adding that the platform will be expanded in a phased manner.
Jindal added that a new manufacturing facility would also be built to meet the need for new and existing products—such as cattle feed solutions—resulting from the proposed platform.
To set up the IT platform, Safex Chemicals will use its domain expertise. He added that the company has already made certain technological investments and plans to gradually expand the team.
With the recent acquisition of Briar Chemicals, a firm based in the UK, the company’s revenue is expected to increase from Rs 783 crore in the last fiscal to Rs 1,220–1,250 crore by the end of 2022–23 fiscal.
Safex Chemicals currently has six manufacturing facilities in India and one in the UK.
