In the summer of 1997, while I was a final year undergraduate student, I wrote an article for the college magazine. The scanned version of that article is at the end of this article.   

The vision for something like “KisanHub” was there since the publication of that article. To me it was my first attempt (and I was not the only one by the way) to showcase what the future of agriculture with computing looks like. However, at that time I realised that I was not qualified enough to execute on that vision. At the same time, the computing infrastructure and web was not evolved then (remember the early days of Client-Server applications and ASPs?). It took another 16 years for me to feel confident enough that this can be achieved. 

Thus, started the KisanHub journey in early 2013. 

There was a reason for naming the platform KisanHub - from day one, I thought this is the UK-India product. It was about creating a software product by bringing the best from both countries. It was about utilising agronomy, supply chain knowledge in the UK and couple that with the software talent in India. The real development of the business started when I met Giles at the Judge Business School’s Accelerate programme. 

In the last seven years, we have achieved a lot and at the same time there remains so much more to achieve. With this team, I have taken the company where I could and as the company is entering the scale up stage, I feel it needs a fresh, energetic leader who can take it to the next level.

The Decision

Having thought about this deeply over the last month or so and after discussing with the Board, I have stepped down as the CEO of KisanHub and stepped out of the company completely.

I am gung ho about KisanHub’s future, its vision, strategy and the market size it is addressing. With an experienced Senior team in place and a solid Board behind it, I feel the company is in good place and I am fully confident that the company will achieve new heights. I will continue to remain on the KisanHub Board as an Observer and be an ambassador for the company from outside.

I am proud of the team we have built. To me KisanHub’s differentiating factor is its people - I cannot thank the team enough for all the hard work they have put in building this company. I would like to thank the investors, both individual and institutional, who have backed the company from its early days. Our clients have played a big role in the development and this article will be incomplete if I do not thank them. Without their support KisanHub wouldn’t have been where it is today. 

Finally, I would like to thank the Senior team and the Board for helping me to transition out of my role in an orderly and painless way. The company has a bright future and I am sure it will flourish under the new leadership. 

Interested to hear more from me on agri-tech, digital transformation, enterprise software and startups?

In the meantime, tell your friends!