CEO Jaisimha Rao of Niqo Robotics: ‘We are not just a spraying company’

Niqo Robotics, based in Bangalore, has just closed US $13 million in Series B funding led by Bidra Innovation Ventures. The round also saw significant investments from new investor Fulcrum Global Capital and existing investor Omnivore. This brings Niqo’s total fundraising to US $21 million.

Future Farming asked Jaisimha Rao about the current state of affairs at Niqo Robotics, and his vision for the future of the company.

How did you get the idea for your technology?

“My father bought a cropping farm and that’s how I was introduced to farming. We still own the farm. I started an engineering study in the U.S., and later went to Wall Street for training. That’s when I got the entrepreneurial bug to start something. When I went back to India after seven years, I decided to start a company. I think agriculture is wisdom driven, and we can also supplement agriculture with new science driven methods and machines. That’s what led me to the Niqo journey. Also, I think in general people underestimate the vibrancy and uptake of technology of emerging market farmers. There is this belief that technology first has to be shipped to large western farmers, and then it can trickle down to emerging markets like ours.”

_{Text continues below picture}

How are you trying to change this perception with your spot spraying technology?

“I think we are already helping more farmers with spot spraying than some of the existing players in the market. Emerging market farmers can leapfrog technology. They can easily go from human knapsack spraying to AI powered spot spraying. That’s part of my journey. Can we change the perception of smallholder farmers? Can they be the leaders in the adoption of technology?

Read also: Niqo Robotics introduces spot spraying technology that fits any sprayer

Why did you start with spot spraying technology?

“The first idea was not spot spraying. From 2014 to 2019, Niqo was flying drones over farmland, to give farmers analytics and advice on their land. But the blunt truth is that farmers don’t want advice. They want solutions. After that, until 2021, looking for solutions, we built a fully electric autonomous robot. But we realised this was too much of a dream. It was a problem to transport the robot from the shed to the farm for example. You need a person that drives a truck or moves it on a trailer. Then farmers ask: why do I need autonomy? This person can just drive my tractor. Another problem was the lack of charging infrastructure. And a robot needs to work 15 to 20 hours a day. There is no downtime for charging.”

“Eventually, I realised it is a lot easier to reduce inputs, and offer farmers direct bottom-line savings. We need to be focused on what the farmer needs, and what the farmer is prepared to pay for it. We decided to focus on spot spraying, where you can save up to 60% on chemicals. And we are proud to have touched the life of 1800 farmers in India. When smallholder farmers see value, they pay for it. At the same time, there are important advantages for the environment, the soil and groundwater, and for the health of the human knapsack sprayers.”

_{Text continues below picture}

I understand there is interest in other countries as well.

“Yes, there is. We will export our products to other countries. They are interesting for vegetable farmers for example. The horticulture markets in the U.S. and Australia are interesting for us. Farms that grow vegetables are usually smaller than farms that have bigger crops, such as corn or soybeans. On vegetable farms, you can go slower, but you need to be more precise. We have that precision, and we like our machines to go a little slower. Right now, we are spraying at 4.6 kms per hour.”

“We would partner with a local dealer, that can also service the machine. There are two opportunities for us. If a farmers already has a sprayer, then he can make it smarter by using our technology as retrofit. There are also farmers that have tractors, and want the sprayer as an implement behind the tractor.”

With the all the competition in these markets, what would be your strong points?

“We already have 50 robot sprayers in India, and have sprayed over 90,000 acres, benefiting over 1800 farmers. We know exactly when the product has to be serviced and what our strong points are. So, we don’t want farmers on the western market to be guinea pigs. And we are not selling the farmer AI technology or robotics. We are selling a tool to make his life easier.”

India is the largest tractor manufacturer in the world

“We also believe that the current products on these markets are overpriced, so we offer a reduction in price. India is the largest tractor manufacturer in the world. We probably have the best supply chain in the world. We want to leverage this, and deliver the value to the farmer.”

Are there also countries that are suitable for working with village level entrepreneurs, like you do in India?

“We are exploring two continents. I have an investor who is extremely bullish on the prospects of African agriculture. There are also countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia, where agriculture is not exactly the same as in India, but where our technology can be used through a village level entrepreneur. When we go to these other countries, we will be only selling the standalone camera, Niqo Sense.”

_{Text continues below picture}

Do you also have a green on green spraying option available?

“In general, people are more comfortable with green on brown spraying. But we are also doing green on green spraying in India.”

What crops are you currently able to spray in?

“We are focused on cotton, chili, corn, potato, soybean, castor, tomato, cabbage, broccoli, iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce and aubergine.”

Is your technology suitable for fertiliser spraying?

“We will be commencing spot spraying with fertiliser this season in India, starting in June. The nutrition is very expensive. Using our green on green technology, we spray only on the plant.”

What other products are you planning to develop?

“Our mission is to ship accessible and reliable robotic products, to make farming sustainable. We are not just a spraying company. I think, in the next two or three years, we will develop different use cases for spraying, including fungicides and fertiliser.”

The other holy grail for us, is robotic harvesting. But it will take time to develop this, at least three years

“The other holy grail for us, is robotic harvesting. But it will take time to develop this, at least three years, as implements. We believe all robotics will be used with a tractor. Removing the human out of the tractor seat is currently not part of our mission. We are in the automation camp. But eventually, we would like to partner with companies that are trying to solve autonomy in agriculture.”

_{Text continues below picture}

You have 50 sprayers currently deployed in India. What is your aim for next season?

“In 2025, we want this number to go up to 150 sprayers in India. We also have double digit number of sprayers that we already are planning to export to other countries. It’s a global market, and there are a lot of players. We appreciate the technology that our competitors have developed, but I think there is an angle for a higher return of investment for this kind of technology. And we can scale up very quickly.”