Bioscience company Absolute awarded Grant from Xamahar - Assam AgriFin Fund in collaboration with the World Bank

New Delhi, September 14, 2023 – Absolute's innovative Agri value chain business, Upaj, has been honored with a grant from the Xamahar - Assam AgriFin Fund to drive transformative changes in Assam's livestock, fisheries, and horticulture sectors.

Xamahar, a pioneering agricultural fund, supported by the World Bank and administered by the Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural Services (ARIAS) under the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (APART), serves as a competitive funding source. Its mission is to bolster innovative approaches, primarily by the private sector, and facilitate the delivery of financial services on a large scale to farmers engaged in key agriculture value chains in Assam.

The Xamahar – Assam Agrifin Fund is designed to promote the testing and scaling-up of proven innovations by financial service providers, including banks, microfinance institutions (MFIs), value chain financiers, insurance companies, and payments service providers. These innovations aim to enhance access to financial services such as savings, payments, insurance, and credit within Assam's agriculture value chains. To date, these initiatives have been implemented or expanded in the 23 priority districts of APART, directly benefiting 125,000 producers, including 30% women beneficiaries.

Through this grant, Upaj will deploy targeted technological and financial solutions, encompassing precision advisory, agri-finance, and insurance, across the livestock, fisheries, and horticulture sectors. Leveraging its core components, SmartSTAC for tech deployment, and DigiSafe for personalized insurance, Upaj aims to uplift farm income and improve farmer livelihoods within the APART districts as part of the Xamahar Agrifin Challenge.

Upaj, Absolute's technology-driven Ag Value Chain business, is on a mission to enhance farmers' lives by empowering them to cultivate better crops and safeguard against weather irregularities. Their comprehensive suite of solutions spans inputs, soil testing, precision advisory, farm monitoring, insurance, and credit. Upaj is reshaping the agricultural value chain by harnessing the collective strength of nature, technology, agronomists, scientists, and industry pioneers. Currently, Upaj boasts over 20 lakh paid farmers within its ecosystem and is progressing towards expanding its reach to 50 lakh farmers.

In addition to its work with Xamahar, Upaj has collaborated on joint projects with esteemed institutions like UNDP, Reserve Bank Innovation Hub, and the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY).

Sourabh Bagla, Senior Vice President of Upaj, expressed, "The Xamahar AgriFin Challenge represents a blueprint for agricultural transformation in underdeveloped regions. Our partnership aims to empower marginalized farmers through cutting-edge technology, benefiting not only individual producers but also the entire ecosystem on a large scale."

About Absolute: Absolute is a bioscience company that draws upon billions of years of nature's intelligence to redefine possibilities in agriculture, biomaterials, and biocare. Through its research and development arm, Xenesis, Absolute has developed the Nature Intelligence Platform (NIP), one of the most extensive collections of microorganisms, biomolecules, and enzymes found in nature.

Operating across 20+ countries, Absolute's Agri businesses include Inera (Next-Gen Climate Adaptive Bio Farm Inputs), Upaj (Tech-driven value chain for sustainable agriculture), and Silkroute (Setting a new standard for global food safety and improving farmer profitability).

Absolute is proudly backed by prestigious investors such as Sequoia, Tiger Global, and Alpha Wave.