The health of the planet and the humans starts with animal nutrition. After all, healthy animals are the key to a healthy planet. Despite holding the global top spot in cattle population and dairy production until now, India lacks disruptive innovations in the animal nutrition and health (ANH) industry. Kumar Ranjan, co-founder & CEO of eFeed, believes that nutrition plays the most critical role in cattle health. By empowering farmers with localised and customised feed advisory supplemented by its premixes, this animal nutrition startup is improving cattle health, milk output, and farmer incomes while lowering reliance on expensive compound feed and medicines.
Venture capital firm Omnivore, which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture, recently invested in eFeed, the former’s third life sciences investment under its OmniX Bio initiative, which was originally launched in December 2021.
Based out of Pune, eFeed was founded in 2021 to disrupt the $14 billion Indian animal nutrition and health industry. The three founders, Kumar Ranjan, Ravi Chauhan and Ankit Patel, all grew up in rural India. Ranjan is a two-time entrepreneur with successful exits to MyGate and Roadzen. Chauhan founded RyCabz, an automobile servicing startup, while Patel, an IIT Bombay graduate, previously worked for Udaan. Currently, eFeed has a network of three lakh farmers and has launched multiple products to improve lactation, solve infertility, and enhance the general health of cattle. Its premixes are formulated to nurture the animals. Some of the benefits include: improved digestion and reduced methane emissions from the cattle.
A prolific user of new-age technologies, this animal nutrition startup uses AI to provide efficient solutions to farmers, dairies and consumers. “We leverage predictive insights in generating feed recommendations through machine learning and data science tools to maximise the milk output in cattles,” says Ranjan. The company has developed nutritional supplements for livestock which can improve overall cattle health while also increasing milk yield. eFeed’s digital nutrition app also provides customised ration balancing, factoring in the location of the cattle and available raw materials for feeding. The app also connects veterinary doctors to cattle farmers for easy access to medical services.
Long story short, there is a huge scope of innovation waiting to happen in animal nutrition in the form of nutraceuticals. And, eFeed is a front runner in creating innovative solutions in the animal nutrition space which can improve the productivity of the animals.
SPREADING INFLUENCE
1 million total animals impacted
1 million metric tonne total milk output increased
100 million total costs saved for farmers across India
18 million metric tonne total methane emission reduction
