HomeAbout
Our mission is to breed crops as fast as the climate changes.
UrbanKisaan is an AI company for plant biology. We build models that read plant DNA, rooms that grow and measure plants all year, and the seed that comes out of them.
- Founded
- 2020
- Headquarters
- Hyderabad, India
- Backed by
- Y Combinator, W20
- Team
- ~50 people
- Patents
- 6 applications filed
Why we exist
Breeding is slower than the climate is changing.
A new crop variety takes about ten years to breed in open fields, at one or two generations a year. Heat, drought and new pests arrive faster than that. We built UrbanKisaan to close the gap.
Models that read plants.
Aadi reads plant DNA. Jeeva predicts how a variety will yield in a given place.
Rooms that test them fast.
Our breeding rooms grow 4 to 6 crop generations a year and measure every plant, every day.
Seed that reaches farms.
What we breed goes into our own seed and crop nutrition, already sold to growers.
Our journey
From growing food to breeding it.
Started in Hyderabad
Growing greens and herbs without soil, in greenhouses and indoor farms.
Joined Y Combinator
Part of the Winter 2020 batch.
BASF Venture Capital invests
Its first early-stage investment focused on India.
Our first speed-breeding room
Our lights go into a national plant research institute, to breed crops faster.
Our first full breeding facility
1,200 m² of speed-breeding rooms, built for a seed company in Punjab.
Our AI team starts
Led by our Chief AI Scientist, to build models that read plant DNA and predict yield.
Aadi and Jeeva
Our foundation models for plant DNA and for yield, available to license.
High-protein rice in farmers’ fields
Our first open-field variety, with 10.5% protein in the grain, grown by farmers who paid for the seed.
Leadership
The people building UrbanKisaan.
Plant breeders, AI scientists and engineers, with decades at seed companies, research labs and consumer businesses.
Dr Sairam Reddy Palicherla
Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer30 years in crop science, 11 of them in vegetable breeding and biotech at J K Agri Genetics.
Srinivas Chaganti
Director, TechnologyBuilding software since 1998. Founded Graylogic Technologies in 2003.
Dr Praveen Pankajakshan
Chief AI ScientistBuilt the AI Lab at Cropin and led data science at Corteva. PhD from INRIA.
Rakshith Gowda
Chief Business OfficerOver 12 years in growth roles at Epigamia, RAW Pressery, Captain Fresh and Poonawalla Fincorp.
Dr Mithun Chakraborty
Crop Innovation LeadNearly 16 years at J K Agri Genetics, latterly heading biotech R&D.
Dr Narsi Reddy Malgireddy
Head of R&D OperationsRuns our research operations. With UrbanKisaan since 2019.
Backed by
Y Combinator, BASF Venture Capital, Titan Capital and others.
Our investors
In the press
Red–blue LED spectra and photoperiod shorten crop duration and advance flowering in hydroponic arugula
J. Advances in Biology & Biotechnology
Wild Abelmoschus derivatives as stable sources of resistance to okra yellow vein mosaic virus
J. Horticultural Sciences
