Fasal, which was once the brightest star in the farmtech cluster, has been reduced to shooting star that is plummeting down. The startup, which had claimed it would change agriculture forever using a blend of AI, IoT and crop science is now just a fruit vendor.
With funds worth $18 million including an injection of $12 million recently, Fasal was set to skyrocket. However, it has more low spots than rides like a rollercoaster. It’s financials resemble dark comedy; revenue surging up by 89%, but mostly from selling fruits only! The previous technology-driven story is no longer there and instead replaced with procurement and logistics as usual.
It’s an old story: ambitious tech startups lured by the allure of disruption find themselves caught short by market realities. Although agritech offers great opportunities for investment, the road to profitability is littered with hype corpos’ remains. Such a move of Fasal towards selling fruits could show how difficult it is to monetize tech in this whole sector.
Though their revenues are maturing rapidly, it’s the smell of desperation rather than success that remains behind. Fasal’s cash burn rate is like a wildfire demonstrating that growing profits doesn’t come as easily as growing crops does. Deeper than well watered field losses have made investors to start wondering if they betted on a watermelon rotten inside.
