Startup AgroWave

Anu Meena

Anu Meena hails from a small village ‘Manoli’ in Rajasthan. Having done her schooling from government hindi medium school, she had to move to town to pursue higher education as there was no facility in the village for secondary education.  This was a turning point of her career. With her hard work, she sought admission in IIT.
She started AGROWAVE in the year 2017, after having completed her IIT  to solve the woes of her grandfather and many other farmers.

She is a young entrepreneur, the founder and CEO of AGROWAVE which was listed in the top 15 startups by AICTE.
It is truly said “Farmers are the backbone of India”,  it is very important to understand their pain points and provide them with a solution.
Miss Meena noticed that her grandfather was not earning much out of farming. As they could not get the actual cost for what they produced. It is then she decided in her early 20 ’s to bring a change in the life of farmers by giving the best price for their produce by eliminating middlemen. She also guided them for an alternative income source. At AGROWAVE they optimized agricultural supply chain using Research, Analytics and Technology. This startup procures fresh fruits and vegetables from farmers and distributes them directly to businesses like Hotels and Restaurants. 

Her path to success is not as simple as it looks.

She was in depression for a year during 11th standard, when she shifted to town from her village for education. Surrounded by bright, meritorious students with good family backgrounds. It was hard for her to cope with the environment and culture. This led her to depression.
She always compared herself with people in the city.  She kept thinking about how people are happy, the way they communicated in English and how good they were in reading newspapers and about their activities. She worked hard to come out of this phase. It was when she visited her parents in the village during the summer holidays. Bonding with family and spending quality time with made her recover and come out of the depression.

She worked hard and studied for around 18 hrs, as a result, topped in 11th Std. She is also good in Athletics and has won many medals.  Her advice to students & people who are going through depression ” Involve yourself in multiple activities where you can divert your attention.  Don’t talk much about it with everyone. But learn to overcome it.”

She was Best Sportsperson of the year at IIT Delhi, where she bagged 3 freedom run awards, one gold and two silver medals and was titled as “Outstanding Sportswoman for the year 2013-14“.

Her Family, Friends, Mentors and Advisors have been supportive during her tough times. She always makes it a point to acknowledge all those who have helped her and believed in her, Mr. Kadiyaan( officer in Haryana Govt), who found her on Google helped her in every possible way. Mr.Yogesh Agrawal, MD of Daffodil Software Pvt. Ltd., who helped her in many ways from the creation of the business model to motivation. Hemerndra Mathur, one of her mentors and advisors, helped her in decision making for investments.
One of her seniors Vanya Bisht from IIT Delhi was a guide. Mr. B.L. Meena, Joint Secretary of Social Justice and Empowerment motivated her in many ways abide by govt policies. Her father, of course, plays a very important role in her life to have shown confidence in her.

An ambitious, strong and independent girl from a small town and listed in Forbes 30 under 30 Asia. Miss Anu has also been listed as top 10 innovators in India by India Today magazine. She has also won an award by the ministry of social justice and empowerment.
She inspires many young entrepreneurs through her journey. She grew up watching her grandfather face challenges in selling his produce so she started to look for a solution to this problem. She was inspired by her grandfather, his hard work in the field of agriculture this is how initially she sowed the seeds of her venture. Her venture uses technology and logistics to procure a supply from farmers, delivering it to the customers, eliminating the middleman. Her startup has raised a seed round as it is clocking sales of more than 50,000 in a day.

Age is just a number! She has proved it, as where ever she goes as a speaker or a panelist, she is the youngest one. She is a brilliant TEDx speaker and also wired as Next Generation conference speaker. She was also a speaker at IIM Vishakhapatnam, judge at Varanasi startup weekend, mentor at Agri Grand challenge by Startup India, mentor and judge at IIT BHU and many more. In the start of her entrepreneur journey,

She is such an exuberant personality who is known for her dedication. She has a positive mental approach who handles challenging problems with the right attitude. She never gave up on anything instead always aimed high and struggled for a better tomorrow. Being an athlete has helped her to keep moving forward.
She believed that real happiness is adding values to others life. She herself went through each step to understand the problems being faced by farmers and to understand their life. She visited many small villages to observe the issues closely. Her startup published farmer’s stories from different corners of the country to understand the scale of the problem and presented it to the government. Agrowave is truly changing the lives of farmers through technology.
She wants to create an impact in people’s lives which matters to her more than money. Life is a race for her and she never wants to stop. Her struggle was real but she didn’t stop and instead learned from her failures and moved on.
Perhaps no one can really imagine a small girl from a small village living in a mud house ( kaccha Ghar ) turned her dream into reality and her vision to help the farmers to bring a change in the society is phenomenal.

She believes women should not allow people to pull them down on the basis of their sex. Do whatever you want to do and nothing can stop you. Success doesn’t come easy,  be prepared to face the difficulties and challenges which you should use as your stepping stone. Whatever heights you reach, stay grounded to your roots is what she believes in.

She is like a bird sitting on the tree that wasn’t afraid of the branch breaking because her trust was not in the branch but in her own wings.