: This Bank Clerk Built One of India’s Largest Agritech Enterprises, Helping Millions #IndiaNEWS #Entrepreneurs How do you go from working as an ordinary bank clerk posted in rural Andhra Pradesh

This Bank Clerk Built One of India’s Largest Agritech Enterprises, Helping Millions #IndiaNEWS #Entrepreneurs
How do you go from working as an ordinary bank clerk posted in rural Andhra Pradesh to running India’s largest agritech enterprise in a span of 30 years? Anilkumar SG, the 49-year-old founder and CEO of Samunnati, has some answers. Starting out as an ordinary clerk in a rural branch of the Canara Bank back in 1991, today he is the Founder and CEO of an agritech venture that works with 1,500 farmer producer organisations (FPOs) on the supply side of the value chain. This in turn represents about 6 million smallholder farmers (as members of these FPOs), and more than 2400 private agri-enterprises either involved in food processing or organised retail chains on the demand side.
Samunnati represents aggregators on either side. Based out of Chennai, the venture defines itself as a B2B2C (Business to Business to Consumer) entity which is innovating with agricultural-finance and commerce to make the larger agricultural value chain operate at a higher equilibrium. The venture calls its approach AMLA (Aggregation, Market Linkage and Advisory Services). So far, it has presence in more than 100 agricultural value chains spread over 22 states in India and has powered over billion of gross transaction value in its journey so far. By 2027, it envisions impacting 1 in every 4 farming households through its network.
Samunnati began its journey by mitigating the problem of access to capital for smallholder farmers. Their farmer-centric approach led them to realise quickly that the gaps of the Indian agricultural ecosystem lay beyond the problem of capital. As an entity, Samunnati today has three core offerings—financial services (customised working capital solutions), providing market linkages for both the FPOs and agricultural enterprises, and institutional building for FPOs.
Samunnati CEO and Founder Anilkumar SG speaking to farmers (Image courtesy Samunnati)
‘My Mother, A Warrior’
Anilkumar was the youngest of four children in a humble lower middle-class family along the semi-arid Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border. Born in Kolar, which was once famous for its gold mines, he was raised in Anantapur and Bellary until finishing school.
“My father, a bank officer, lost his job when I was 10. For the next 8 years till I got my first job, my mother took charge. We lived a very frugal existence. In fact, we didnt even have rice to eat for two years, but the self-respect my mother had was so strong that she didnt send us to live in any relative’s house. During the summer holidays, she would make us take exams organised by the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha (an organisation looking to improve Hindi literacy among non-Hindi speakers in South India) and ensured we took advantage of all the educational possibilities before us,�? recalls Anilkumar, speaking to The Better India.

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