At British International Investment (BII), we invest with a clear ambition: not only to support individual businesses, but to help shape markets in ways that deliver lasting impact for people and the planet.
Digital agri-marketplaces and farmer platforms have the potential to transform agriculture by improving farmers’ access to inputs, finance, markets and information. Yet despite rapid growth in smartphone ownership across rural India – with an estimated 90 million farming households now owning smartphones – adoption of digital agricultural innovations remains relatively low, at 20-25 per cent of farming households with smartphones. Through our Venture Capital Catalyst portfolio, BII is an anchor investor in funds that support such innovative, early-stage businesses and catalyse wider market change.
This study examines the market-level impact of our venture capital investments in digital agri-marketplaces and farmer platforms in India. It looks at the businesses BII has backed through two funds: Ankur Capital II and Omnivore Partners India Fund II.
It finds that these investments have delivered substantial direct effects. Portfolio companies have scaled significantly, reaching nearly 15 million farmers by 2025. Our early investment was instrumental in enabling this growth by helping these funds reach close and, in turn, giving companies the runway to test and refine their models. It has also helped these companies attract over $700 million in follow-on funding.
Beyond these direct effects, the findings show how supporting innovative businesses through locally-based fund managers can contribute to market-level change, particularly in nascent markets where many companies are too early stage for BII to invest in directly. Several investee companies pioneered new technologies and approaches that have since been replicated by other companies, including in other value chains. Some investee companies have also acted as economic enablers for other businesses selling products and services to smallholder farmers, through generating and sharing data to facilitate risk analysis and expand customer reach. The findings also highlight where our influence has been more limited. Despite several examples of digital agri-marketplaces and farmer platforms financed by Omnivore and Ankur successfully raising capital, investors remain cautious about the sector due to limited evidence to date of attractive financial performance and successful exits.
These findings have strengthened our understanding of how providing capital to funds based in the markets we operate in can unlock system-level impact, and where we need to engage more deeply to influence the competitive landscape and capital flows. They also underline that building markets takes time, and that achieving systemic change requires both early risk-taking and sustained engagement.
We hope this report contributes to wider learning across the development finance community as we collectively seek to support more inclusive, resilient and sustainable agricultural systems.
