Vision
The Company - WS -
Automated Crop insurance based on AI - Stanford Research Institure technology
A powerfull Two-sided market place
Farmers
Insurance companies
Financial institutions
Instant access to personalized crop insurance products
AI-based automated damage assessment tool
Climate-smart training
AI-based advisory
Apply and get a crop insurance in 3'
Claim & Receive Claim payment in 10'
Large, subsidised
userbase
Smaller, profitable
customer base
Company profile
Insure Tech
The company
The Company uses deep tech to deliver instant access to personalized insurance products (including automated damage assessment), climate-smart training, and advisories to small-holder farmers and rural communities globally, enabling financial resilience, economic empowerment, and livelihood sustainability in the face of climate change.
Investment geography: India - US (research)
Two--sided market place
Round objectives
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Add 200k Farmers to the platforrm
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$600k in Revenue
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AR Claims functionality for multiple crops
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Health, Auto & Livestock product support
Why invest now
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Highly scalable model
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SRI-based tech and support (Stanford Research Institute)
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Automated damage assessment (using computer vision)
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Impactful Company
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Valuation
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Large total addressable market (USD200Bn)
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Experienced team
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Expected return between 8x and 10x cash on cash multiple
WS has developed a unique application of deep tech that straddles the Agtech & Insurtech sectors.
Their mobile App enables small farmers to tackle climate change and other risks by tapping into geospatial/computer vision capabilities from the App to identify their acreage/land and computer-vision technology to visually inspect their crops via voice and AR (Augmented Reality) based guidance.
Once these steps are taken, the App provides a marketplace for instantaneous approval for Crop and other insurance products in less than 5 minutes.
Why is this important:
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27% of the world's population derives their livelihood from agriculture and is directly affected by climate change
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Less than 10% of these farmers have access to crop insurance globally
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Around 1B people in India are Agri-dependent with no protection.
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Insurance protection for the farmers can provide the same safety net as a Savings bank or Pension Fund and make the farmer more credit-worthy
The Disruptive Impact
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Transforms applying for Crop Insurance from a 6 Week process today (IF you can access providers) .....to a 3-minute process
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Filing a crop insurance claim & receiving claim payment from 12+ month process today to 10-minutes
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Adaptation to the adverse effects of climate change at an individual farm level
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Can scale over hundreds of millions of farms across the world.
The Long-term Vision:
Initially, the advanced WS App capabilities provide geospatial insights, predictive weather, crop monitoring & rotation insights, and data that only the largest agro-industrial operation can access today - but long-term, the extended capabilities of this App go from offering instantaneous access to crop insurance & other General Insurance products to a plethora of fintech and economic empowerment products & services that could include micro-credit, equity investments and pre-purchasing/brokerage of crops. All made possible because of the depth of data being tracked (weather/microclimate, farm design, crop yield, soil conditions, quality of crops, precipitation patterns, etc.) within the App.
Proprietary IP:
Stanford Research Institute (SRI International) has exclusively contributed core IP (Intellectual Property) in the following areas: artificial intelligence/Machine learning, computer vision (Augmented Reality and Image Processing), and later to be extended to Speech & explainable AI (Artificial Intelligence).
The Founders are repeat entrepreneurs who have built and exited technology and insurance-related companies in the United States, India, and Europe.
Key Partnerships
The company has already struck partnerships with Industry heavyweights in India for Insurance underwriting, distribution, and services, such as Tata AIG, HDFC Ergo, Agricultural Insurance Corporation of India, Bajaj Allianz, ICICI-Lombard, etc.
It is creating partnerships with other strategic enablers within Govt of India, progressive States, global foundations/NGOs, Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD) & other players within the agriculture and insurance value chain.
WS was invited along with SRI by the Govt of India to present their capabilities in crop loss/damage assessment & approaches for yield estimation in October during India’s National Review Conference for crop insurance, where all stakeholders, including insurers, reinsurers, states, and scientific research institutions participate. (No other startups/companies were invited). Following this presentation, WS is invited by the GOI to test its technology for crop damage assessment and distribution.
WS is the first Insurtech platform invited to deliver its service via WhatsApp as part of Facebook’s Financial Inclusion project.
Advisory Board Includes:
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The former US Ambassador to India under Bill Clinton
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CEO/Board members of major Insurance and banks in India
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Computer Vision scientists and industry experts
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Agronomists & Agri scientists with focus on farm design/resilience and soil restoration
India is the first prioritized market, with a huge multi-billion-dollar opportunity, then Africa, Asia, and the rest of the world.
Disclaimer
This is for information purpose only and is not the result of an independent financial research. Information contained in this document has been obtained from sources considered reliable. However, no warranty, nor guarantee is given in relation with this presentation, in particular, with regard to its accuracy or completeness. Agroecology Capital has not undertaken any legal or tax analysis related to the information contained herein. Clients should seek their own independent advice on such matters. All documents and views expressed constitute judgment as of the date of writing and may change at anytime without notice and without obligation to update.
Any investment decision must be taken on the basis of a detailed and appropriate analysis; this should not be considered as the relevant information to take an investment decision.
Where some funds are described in this presentation, any investor considering a direct investment in a fund shall rely on the prospectus only. Certain transactions and products described in this presentation might not be suitable for all investors due to the high risk characteristics or due to the ineligibility of some of them.
Past performance is not necessarily indicative of current or future results. Performance figures do not take into account any expenses related to transactions.