Interview With Nitin Puri, Founder and CEO of KisaanSay

Welcome to another edition of Founder Spotlight, where we feature the founder and CEO of KisaanSay, Nitin Puri-an agritech startup based in Gurugram, India. With over 25 years of experience in agribusiness, his exposure to both Indian and global food systems has shaped his vision for KisaanSay.The agritech startup market is witnessing robust expansion, with a CAGR ranging from 11.4% to 12.9% through 2029–2030. By 2030, the market is expected to nearly double, reaching around $49 billion, and by 2034, projections suggest it could surpass $74 billion. KisaanSay leverages a digital ecosystem, including a farmer app for inventory and sales tracking, blockchain-based traceability for consumers, and AI-driven demand forecasting to optimize the supply chain. Through its innovative co-brand and co-profit model, KisaanSay is setting new benchmarks for ethical and efficient farm-to-consumer supply chains in India.

Hi Nitin, Thank you for joining us in our Founderspotlight Interview! With over 25 years of experience in senior roles, how has your background in sales, operations, supply chain, commodities, retail, and banking shaped your approach to leading KisaanSay?

I was fortunate to have had a ringside view of the entire agribusiness & food sector through my various roles in the industry. Working with market leaders like ITC, Reliance Retail, Yes Bank & other corporates gave me a well rounded perspective of the sector as well as enabled me to cement some fantastic lifelong relationships & networks with various stakeholders in the farm to fork food supply chain. KisaanSay is a grand culmination of sorts where all the challenges in the sector that I encountered are being dealt with through a unique business model that benefits both consumers & farmers alike.

What makes KisaanSay’s products unique compared to other packaged food? How does KisaanSay maintain the authenticity of their product?

KisaanSay offers the promise of authenticity & trust to Consumers. We observed that there was no single Indian Food Brand offering an omnibus portfolio of products across categories, with the promise of 100% Single Origin & 100% Packed at Source. Consumers look for such products with functional differentiation & benefits and farmers look for market access to market these products. Through a unique co-brand/ co-profit collaborative business model, we have enabled thousands of farmers to reach consumers across India through various online & offline channels. The power of efficient supply chain, branding & distribution are being successfully leveraged through KisaanSay, to offer the best products to Consumers & the best livelihoods to farmers across India.

KisaanSay’s unique “Packed at Source” model ensures 100% traceability & 100% authenticity of each & every product that we market to consumers across India. Every KisaanSay product comes with a “Seal of Origin” that ensures 100% traceability. We have identified natural farming clusters in mountain, valley, tribal, forest & dry land areas of India where some of the most outstanding food products are grown & minimally processed, the traditional way.

KisaanSay aims to connect consumers with authentic products directly from farmer enterprises. How does KisaanSay identify and select these farmer enterprises, and what criteria are used to ensure the quality and sustainability of their practices?

We have a strict product & process standardization protocol for identifying, hand holding & operationalizing farmer collectives units across India. We have well established quality control & quality assurance systems wherein the internal KisaanSay team ensures every product from the remotest corner of India complies with the best of global regulatory & quality norms. It is a revolution indeed to witness how the smallest of Indian farmer enterprises are delivering some of the best in class products that stand with confidence, even at a global level. We have the principles of ESG & SDGs firmly engrained in our business model wherein we also collaborate with global & Indian agencies to drive innovation & sustainability in our supply chains.

KisaanSay is launching a full range of single-origin food products from farmer collectives globally at events like Gulfood. What are the key challenges and opportunities anticipated in expanding its model to the international market?

The global consumer is increasingly realizing the value of Indian food products grown the traditional way, with indigenous seeds and employing traditional farming practices. Natural farming clusters in India are increasingly catching the eye of the international audience. Food safety, product standardization, product innovation, good packaging & global certifications will play a big role in helping us reach the global market in a successful way.

With a partner network of 15 Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) across 8 states in India with over 50,000 farmers, how does KisaanSay manage the complexities of logistics, warehousing, and distribution to ensure timely delivery and minimize food waste?

There has been a disruption & democratization in the warehousing & logistics space in India on the back of tech innovation & infrastructure boost in India over the last one decade. We are partnering with many startups in India who collaborate with us to develop efficient & scalable solutions to manage our farm to fork supply chain with great ease & speed. On the frontend side, we are an omnichannel distribution company working with General Trade, Modern Trade, eCom & Quick Commerce platforms.

How does KisaanSay’s “co-brand & co-profit model” with FPCs influence its valuation compared to more traditional food brands or agritech companies?

KisaanSay’s Co- Brand/ Co- Profit business model in partnership with farmer collectives is the core of our success & scale up strategy. If you deploy the best of professionalism, work in a transparent way with farmers and ensure the best products to consumers, the power of the KisaanSay model becomes so very powerful that the sky is the limit. Traditional Food companies are wary of engaging directly with farmers, treat farmers very transactionally & do not share with farmers the profits that get generated through the supply chain. This essential difference of treating farmers as “partners” vs “suppliers” makes all the difference.  

KisaanSay emphasizes direct sourcing and hygienic processing at the source. What specific technologies or processes does KisaanSay implement to monitor food safety and quality throughout its supply chain?

We are deploying the best of food safety protocols, the best globally accepted practices and the best of tech to ensure our consumers enjoy the best products from the best locations in India. We are currently building a full stack tech solution that is further going to revolutionise the way consumers engage with food & the way farmers engage with food supply chains. Food is indeed a very sensitive product, given food safety & hygiene nuances, and you cannot take any chances here.

Congratulations for securing $2 million in pre-seed funding, How does KissanSay plan to use the funding?

Thank you very much. We are deploying most of this fund in further expanding our distribution reach to more channels & cities as well as to build a marketing pipeline that will take us to over 100 farmer collectives & 500 products from the current 20 farmer collectives & 100 products.

What insights would you share with entrepreneurs aiming to excel in food and agribusiness?

Focus on the problem, spend a good amount of time on homework to get to the depth of the use case you are attempting to address, come up with an MVP that should run successfully for a few months, and then only build your financial muscle/ organizational strength to scale up. Poor homework/ improper identification of the real problems will not help you to succeed in the long run. India is a goldmine of opportunities and the next few decades are India’s golden years. So press the pedal, put in hard work, toss it with loads of passion and the sky is the limit for you. Go for it!