Carnot Technologies targets overseas markets for its IoT-enabled farm equipment kits

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Agri-fintech startup Carnot Technologies, backed by Mahindra and Qualcomm, is looking to achieve two-fold revenue growth over the next three years as it expands its operations in both domestic and overseas markets.

The company that develops IT hardware – AI-enabled IoT suites that help charter entrepreneurs improve their profit potential by tracking the use of agricultural equipment such as tractors, harvesters, rice planters, and more.

Carnot installs of agricultural equipment have surpassed 30,000, and the company aims to add another 50,000 this fiscal year, said Pushkar Limaye, co-founder and chief technology officer. Carnot, in which Mahindra holds a 70 per cent stake, reported revenue of Rs.23 crore in FY23. “We are looking forward to double growth in the next three years to reach Rs.50 crore in revenue,” Lemay said.

Lemay said about 70 percent of tractor owners in India lease their tractors and the company is focused on the rental entrepreneur (RE) community.

Rental entrepreneurs

Carnot IoT kits help renewables see how much of an area has been plowed and charge accordingly, and rental project owners can use a mobile-based app for real-time live tracking of their assets, exact amounts of work done, fuel status and accounting solutions. The AI ​​model detects the area of ​​the farm automatically and more statistics about the area of ​​the farm, how long it took to plow, etc.

“They know how much land has been plowed so they can charge accordingly. Besides, it also helps prevent unauthorized work by drivers or small deal handling. It helps them keep watch, and prevents fuel theft and fuel related matters.”

The company, which has started selling its products abroad, has a presence in Brazil, Kenya, Bangladesh, Japan and Tanzania and we receive inquiries on how to install tractors. “We now have 3,500 international deployments, mostly from Africa. One we sold to the government of Benin. We’re now making 300 as a pilot for Tanzania,” Lemay said. The company is also looking at fleet owners of agricultural equipment in the US and Europe.

Back home, Carnot’s device also helps tractor owners convert entrepreneurs, making them expand their fleet. It has partnered with Avanti Finance to assist REs with their working capital requirements. Apart from tractors, the machines are also used in rice planters, harvesters, generator sets, etc.