Nutreco, a global animal nutrition and aquaculture company based in the Netherlands has announced its investment in India’s leading dairy-tech startup Stellapps to enable farmers to increase productivity and efficiency.
Since 2019, Nutreco has made over 10 investments across Asia, Latin America, Australia, Europe, and the USA, reflecting its ongoing commitment to support innovative new technologies that advance sustainability across the feed-to-farm value chain.
India is the world’s largest dairy market; approximately 570 million liters of milk is produced daily, and recent research indicates that the country’s dairy market is set to increase by 6% between 2021 and 2026. With two-thirds of dairy farmers being smallholder dairy farmers (with between two and five cows), India’s dairy market has a large sustainability footprint and there is significant room for improvement. India’s smallholder dairy farmers can avail of scientific innovations and digital solutions, which are crucial to enable farmers to increase productivity and efficiency in a sustainable way.
Farmers with smaller herd sizes often face barriers when seeking to grow their businesses sustainably, including challenges such as financial support, accessing high-quality products and services, and expanding their customer base.
Stellapps was founded in 2011 by five technology industry veterans who believed that IoT could transform rural India. Last year, Stellapps was one of the two Indian companies featured in the list of Technology Pioneers by the World Economic Forum. Its award-winning smartMoo technology solutions enhance productivity, milk quality and enable traceability. By enabling ecosystem partnerships through its online platform, Stellapps enables farmers to gain access to financial services, quality nutrition, and timely veterinary care. Stellapps’ mooPay FinTech arm facilitates the financial inclusion of smallholder farmers by providing access to digital payments, banking, savings, cash withdrawal, credit, and insurance.
Nutreco CEO – Fulco van Lede commented, “I am thrilled that Nutreco is investing in Stellapps, a game-changing technology for sustainable growth in the Indian dairy market. Our purpose, Feeding the Future, drives us to invest in innovative technologies that improve the sustainability of our food supply chain. The investment in Stellapps not only supports the farming industry to feed a growing global population in a more sustainable way but also provides better prospects for smaller farmers.”
