Vietnam’s agriculture industry stands to reap huge benefits through widespread adoption of digital agtech solutions. As Vietnam is a relative agtech newcomer, the presence of established agtech firms in the country can create strong impacts on yield, efficiency and profitability across different agricultural sectors. 

These issues prompted the GRAFT Challenge Vietnam team to invite the Indian agtech provider Cropin to apply for the 2021 Challenge. Founded in 2010 by Indian entrepreneurs Krishna Kumar, and Kunal Prasad, Cropin has established itself as the world’s #1 agri-ecosystem intelligence provider. 

Cropin has built a suite of SaaS solutions , including the SmartFarm, its flagship end-to-end farm management solution that leverages ground-truth data, weather advisory, and accurate insights based on satellite monitoring to enable data-driven farm management and business operations.  

“Our platform enables various stakeholders in the agri-ecosystem, leveraging digitization and predictive intelligence to make effective decisions that increase farming efficiency, scale productivity, and enhance sustainability,” says Ankita Valeja – Marketing and Research Manager of CropIn Technology. 

Cropin has now established partnerships with 250+ global agribusiness clients and brought its solution to 7 million farmers in 56 countries. All told, Cropin’s solution has digitized 16 million acres of farmland to date, covering close to 400 crops.  

As of January 2022, Cropin has raised US$33.1 million in investment, including a recent $20 million in Series C funding, and the company has received accolades from the World Bank, The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, and other organizations. 

Having previously taken part in GRAFT Challenge India in 2019, Cropin quickly recognized the values GRAFT would bring through the programme’s bespoke technical support and deep industry ties, as the company sought to open a pathway into the Vietnamese market.  

“The Graft challenge is giving innovators from all around the world the support they need to scale in the Vietnamese market; and we were impressed with how quickly the GRAFT program identified our USPs and market positioning in Vietnam,” shares Arjun Dutta – Sales Director, Asia Pacific of CropIn Technology. “They were able to quickly identify the important businesses and connect our team for more in-depth implementation conversations. We appreciate the organizers’ assistance in helping us achieve our goal of making a positive, long-term influence in the Vietnamese coffee industry.” 

During GRAFT Challenge Vietnam 2021, the GRAFT team and Cropin worked collaboratively to build and execute on a Vietnam-specific-go-to-market strategy to bring its solutions to Vietnam’s coffee sector: engaging strategic partners for commercial trials, initiating discussions with local fit-for-purpose technology partners, and building local marketing capabilities. 

Through its links with the Vietnam Coffee-Cocoa Association (VICOFA), GRAFT reached out to local producers to discuss partnerships with Cropin. GRAFT then connected Cropin with established agribusinesses who agreed to partner with the company to conduct proof-of-concept trials on Vietnamese farms.  

“Given Cropin’s well-established portfolio of SaaS based solutions ranging from traceability along the agrifood value chain, farm management, and risk assessment on-farm – the opportunity was to work with the team to hone in on a specific supply chain leveraging some of its clear use-cases in relatable projects in Thailand,” shared GRAFT Program Lead Will Tang. “We helped Cropin to establish relationships with players in the coffee and cocoa segments, and supported their communications with existing Vietnamese MNC clients now leading to commercial trials.”  

These efforts have led to concrete results, as Cropin recently closed the deal on a promising commercial trial of their solutions with one of Vietnam’s leading domestic seed distributors. 

Finally, in efforts to help Cropin establish local operational and marketing capabilities, the GRAFT Challenge has introduced the company to Clickable Impact and Chicom, capable Vietnam-based agencies now working to provide market insights and build Cropin’s in-market presence. 

“It’s incredibly interesting to see how the GRAFT programme can understand local market requirements and connect outstanding AgriTech entrepreneurs with consumers, partners, and scale-up resources. Cropin was able to develop Vietnam-specific solutions as a result of this,” shares Arjun Dutta. “We have gained significant traction in the last three months. With the groundwork now laid for its Vietnam operations, Cropin is confident that it will be able to build a solid project pipeline in the coming year.” 

If you or any entities in your networks are interested in partnering with CropIn on its journey to scale up in Vietnam, contact the GRAFT team at hello@graftchallenge.com. 

Follow GRAFT Challenge Vietnam on LinkedIn and Facebook for updates on our agritech cohort.