Pasidi Panta helps smallholder spice growers in India improve their income

Seattle, Washington | December 13, 2022

Upaya Social Ventures (Upaya) today announced an investment in Pasidi Panta Private Limited (Pasidi Panta). The agritech startup, based in Hyderabad, provides services across the red chili value chain to build capacity and increase incomes of smallholder farmers.

Pasidi Panta was founded in 2019 by Krishnaiah Kodimela with the intent to fix problems facing the smallholder farmer community in India. Krishnaiah hails from a farmer family and spent over 17 years working in the agriculture sector with both nonprofits and corporations, where he built a deep understanding of the sector’s nuances and challenges.

“We are thrilled to join hands with Pasidi Panta. Krishnaiah is fully committed to the cause of farmers and is using his vast corporate experience in the agriculture sector to build a sustainable and profitable social enterprise,” said Ankur Mehta, Director of Investments & Portfolio at Upaya. “We are confident that Upaya's partnership will help the company execute its ambitious growth plans, while benefiting a substantial number of farmers along the way.”

Pasidi Panta currently operates in the Warangal district of Telangana, a major producer and exporter of red chili from India. The enterprise specializes in a high-grade chili grown using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices. IPM involves a particular combination of cultural, biological, and chemical measures to provide the most cost-effective, climate-resilient, and socially responsible pest management method. With the increasing need for sustainable, climate-resilient farming practices, Upaya has made a commitment to investing in companies that include climate mitigation in their mission, like Pasidi Panta.

"Indian spices have a strong potential for export markets; however, it is hampered by climate vagaries and unsustainable practices in production”, said A B Chakravarthy, Upaya’s India Country Director. “Pasidi Panta takes this challenge head-on by bringing sustainable and climate-resilient practices through technology to small and marginal farmers in India’s $1 billion Chillies market, one of the largest exported spices from India. We are excited by the triple prospect of farmers benefiting from the increase in income, consumers with residue-free products, and a safe planet."

Pasidi Panta provides training on IPM practices, among other advisory services, and access to inputs and markets, with the goal of helping farmers increase profits. The first cluster to partner with Pasidi Panta saw an income increase of 22% for its more than 350 farmers. The enterprise subsequently expanded to three new clusters in 2022 with their sights set on 20 additional clusters in the next three years.

The investment from Upaya marks Pasidi Panta’s first institutional investment and is part of a round of funding that will support team expansion, marketing, and technology development. As part of Upaya’s active investment portfolio, Pasidi Panta will also receive strategic business advisory and impact management support.

"We are very excited with this investment and looking forward to working with Upaya,” said Krishnaiah. “The team at Upaya is committed, passionate and supportive. So we see a long term strategic partner in Upaya and strongly believe this collaboration would definitely help us grow our business and our impact on smallholder farmers."

This investment is Upaya’s 33rd impact investment in India, and its 13th investment in the food and agriculture industry. “There is a reason that Upaya has made so many investments into companies that improve profitability for smallholder farmers: we can’t solve poverty without improving their lives, especially as they face ever-increasing challenges related to climate change,” said Upaya CEO Kate Cochran. “We like the crop-specific expertise Pasidi Panta demonstrated, along with their efforts to help farmers move away from costly and damaging chemical pesticides.”

The investment is one of 18 made from Upaya’s first $1M ‘recycling philanthropy’ initiative. This pioneering model pools together foundation grants in a fund from which to draw investments in early-stage social enterprises. Financial returns from these investments are returned back to the original donor with a capped premium of up to 5%. This unique structure lets one donation make an impact over and over again, and opens up investment in “missing middle” companies to funders who typically cannot make smaller single investments.

Additionally, Pasidi Panta is the third company from Upaya’s 2022 accelerator cohort to receive investment from Upaya, having completed Upaya’s highly-regarded accelerator program in July 2022. Upaya’s investment criteria is aimed at identifying impact-driven businesses that are likely to create at least 1,000 dignified jobs for people living in extreme poverty within seven years of investment. Upaya is currently reviewing applications for its next accelerator program, which will be run in partnership with Yunus Social Business in 2023.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Madlin D’silva
mdsilva@upayasv.org