While on an expedition driven by personal curiosity, Ankur Omar noticed that there were no analytical tools available for farmers to make accurate agricultural decisions. To curb the farming community’s reliance on guesswork and word-of-mouth, Ankur and his brother Akash Omar started building a platform that could democratise access to remote sensing data and agronomy advisory.
In 2019, that project eventually resulted in Farmonaut, a spacetech SaaS company that accesses satellite data and shares it directly with farmers to make farming better and cost-effective.
“It all started with a simple yet powerful realisation: millions of farmers across the globe lack access to timely, reliable, and affordable data that could transform their agricultural decisions. We wanted to bridge that information gap using satellite and AI technologies,” says Akash, Director of Farmonaut. Ankur serves as the startup’s CEO.
The startup is based in Bengaluru where it has an office, but its 15-member team is scattered across India. It has also expanded to Wilmington, Delaware, in the US.
Developing in-house technology with a global impact
Farmonaut operates on a SaaS model, offering various subscriptions ranging from their starter service at Rs 200 a month to their standard offering at Rs 5,578.21 a month (about $64.99). It took the team about two years to build its technology that processes, analyses, and converts satellite data into actionable insights for agricultural stakeholders using proprietary AI models.
“We use a mix of in-house developed models—especially for disease detection, irrigation alerts, and crop stress mapping—and selectively integrate open-source AI frameworks where applicable,” says Akash, adding that on the AI front, the team is excited about foundation models for geospatial intelligence, LLMs for personalised farmer advisory, and self-supervised learning for crop classification across geographies.
The startup doesn’t manufacture its own satellites. Instead, it aggregates and processes satellite data from public and commercial sources, such as Sentinel, Landsat, and NASA, among others. While it hasn’t formally partnered with ISRO yet, it utilises its data when available.
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The startup has over 25 active clients across India, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Italy, and the US, among others. They range from agri-input companies and FPOs to governments and exporters. Around 16 of them are based in India; the rest are international. Some of Farmonaut’s major clients include Godrej Agrovet, Troforte, International Food Processing and Research Institute, and Hayleys Agriculture.
“They subscribe to access farm-level satellite data, soil and crop health reports, automated AI advisories, and weather-linked insights. Clients get access via dashboard, API, mobile apps, and even through WhatsApp,” he says.
Akash mentions that the monthly subscriptions and seasonal packages are popular, especially those bundled with WhatsApp push advisories and AI-based agronomy alerts.
“Indian clients, particularly in agri-businesses and export domains, are now embracing the SaaS model aggressively, thanks to its affordability, scalability, and plug-and-play nature. And international demand is also growing rapidly, especially in regions where climate-resilient farming is a key concern,” he explains. Farmonaut plans to acquire 100 clients by the end of 2026.
The startup primarily operates in the B2B and B2G space serving agribusinesses, input companies, farmer producer organisations, NGOs, and government agencies. However, through its mobile app and WhatsApp advisory services, it indirectly reaches thousands of individual farmers, impacting the B2C space as well.
“There are more than two lakh farmers who are benefiting from the system. However, not everyone is using our systems from the mobile app. For instance, over 37,000 farmers are getting the benefits through Godrej Agrovet, who have been our client since 2021,” Akash adds.
Growing in a collaborative ecosystem
Farmonaut recently expanded into the mining sector, helping mining companies identify locations with high potential of minerals and rare earth elements with mining exploration analytics. It recently completed a remote sensing project for a gold mining client in Mauritania.
“The expansion was driven by demand from climate-tech initiatives and agri-companies abroad who were looking for satellite-backed traceability and advisory solutions,” he says.
Operating primarily as a remote-first tech company, Farmonaut relies on its cloud infrastructure, where the team processes gigabytes of satellite data and runs simulations. While it has been part of various ecosystem networks, it hasn’t been formally incubated; the idea is to stay lean and tech-focused by design.
The company has come a long way since its initial days when convincing stakeholders that satellite-based monitoring was accurate and actionable was a big hurdle.
“Internet penetration in rural areas was also a limiting factor. Our first client was a smallholder farmer who used our platform to monitor his farms. His trust and feedback helped us refine the platform in the real world,” says Omar.
The company has recently launched two new services: Wildfire Detection System, a real-time monitoring solution helping governments and forest departments detect and respond to wildfire outbreaks with 10-minute alerts; and Agri Loan & Insurance Services, a data-driven suite designed for financial institutions and insurance providers.
Omar says the team is actively exploring collaborations with spacetech data providers, deeptech AI firms, and agri-input startups to enhance its ecosystem offerings.
“India’s agritech sector is at a tipping point. Adoption is accelerating, and the government is opening up geospatial access. This is the right time for interoperable innovation,” he says.
Funding
Bootstrapped with Rs 3 lakh, Farmonaut hasn’t raised a funding round yet. The startup has sustained itself through its undisclosed annual revenue and small grants. The majority of its investment goes into AI model development, refinement, cloud processing infrastructure, and satellite data acquisition.
“We are now targeting an annual revenue of Rs 10 crore ( about $1.2 million) by FY2026, focusing on global expansion and vertical integration in the mining and insurance sectors,” he says.
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Some of the grants the startup has received are MEITY Samridh (Rs 40 lakh), NIDHI SSS (Rs 30 lakh), Startup Mahakumbh Startup Maharathi Award (Rs 1 lakh), and Indian Mobile Congress Winner (Rs 1 lakh).
The startup competes with Bengaluru-based companies like Cropin, Satyukt and SatSure, while also going up against international companies like the Mountain View, California-based EOS Data Analytics.
Omar believes his company stands out because of its hyper-flexible API, instant WhatsApp delivery system, AI-based multilingual advisory, and transparent and affordable pricing.
“We also focus heavily on white-label offerings, making us a preferred backend partner,” the founder says.
Edited by Jyoti Narayan
