30 Fastest Growing Companies in Asia 2019 30 Fastest Growing Companies in Asia 2019 | Page 48

A Company
Focused On
Enabling Financial
Inclusion in
Agriculture In An
Era of Climate
Change: SatSure
T
hroughout history Earth’s
climate has changed
significantly, but the modern
warming trend is abnormal because
it is the result of human activity.
Earth-orbiting satellites and other
technological advances have
enabled scientists to see the big
picture, collecting many different
types of information about our
planet and its climate on a global
scale. This body of data, collected
over many years, reveals the signals
of a changing climate.
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The combination of advancing
climate change and an already-
vulnerable industrial system is
a “perfect storm” that threatens
farmers’ livelihoods and our food
supply. The good news is that there
are tools in the form of science-
based farming practices that can
buffer farmers from climate damage
and help make their operations
more resilient and sustainable for
the long term. SatSure is a decision
intelligence solutions company
based in India, which leverages
advances in satellite remote sensing,
machine learning and big data
analytics to provide answers to
DECEMBER 2019
Prateep Basu, Co-founder & CEO
large area questions in the areas
of agriculture, infrastructure, and
Climate Action. SatSure has built a
technology platform, with products
designed at the intersection of the
sustainability nexus of food, water,
and energy security for the other
3 billion. As the effects of climate
change become more prominent
with frequent droughts and natural
catastrophes, investment in
agriculture, infrastructure, energy
and associated technologies has to
be complemented with investments
in the associated financial services
and policy making approach that
support development of these areas
through improved credit flows, risk
mitigation strategies and capacity
building to handle new technologies.
Advent of SatSure
SatSure’s founding team
comprises of four friends with
background in space technology
and entrepreneurship. Myself and
Abhishek Raju built the initial
idea of SatSure and were joined by
Ishan Tomar and Rashmit Singh
Sukhmani as co-founders. Having
built their careers at esteemed
Indian Space Research Organization,
the consensus was that technology
capability exists to address
structural problems of the society,
but it was the business model for
which there was no precedent.
Almost 9 months were spent by
me and Abhishek to gather the
pain points of all the stakeholders
- farmers, bureaucrats, bankers,
insurers, machinery companies, and
multilateral agencies, to understand
the gaps to be addressed by using
the technical expertise which the
founding team possessed. Waiting
for hours to meet politicians and
administrators for a few minutes
to understand the policy and
administration pain points, traveling
to rural areas for interacting with
farmers and cooperatives, listening
to executives in the high-rise offices
of Mumbai about how they tackle
the inefficiencies, SatSure’s founders
did it all to create good design-to-fit
products and build an organization
that can create impact at scale that
trickles down to the bottom of the
pyramid.
Vision and Growth
A remarkable vision of SatSure
is to enable financial inclusion