In this interview, Manisha speaks with Raj Somasundaram, CEO and founder of AquaConnect, about the company’s recent $15 million funding round, its sustainable full‑stack aquaculture technology model operating across six Indian states, and the broader Indian aquaculture sector. Raj outlines a $25 billion market opportunity, noting India’s position as the world’s second‑largest aquaculture producer and a $7 billion annual seafood export, with the sector growing at a 10 % CAGR. He highlights the limited penetration of technology in Indian farms, identifying awareness and viable business models as key barriers, and stresses the need for both startup innovation and supportive policies to drive adoption. Raj also emphasizes shifting focus from export‑centric sales to boosting domestic seafood consumption to stabilize prices and improve farmer incomes. Concluding with two concrete recommendations for the upcoming 2023 Union Budget, he calls for government‑backed awareness campaigns and incentives for farm‑level technology adoption, as well as initiatives to promote domestic seafood consumption.
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Welcome back. Joining us on the show now is Raj Somasundaram. He's CEO and founder at Aqua Connect. Raj, hi, welcome to the show. You know, we were discussing not too long back ago on how many of the startups in 2022 did not end up making money. But the way your model has been phygital and you are spread out in 6 states and aquaculture is what you do, Tell us what went right for you in the last one year. You especially got another round of funding as well.
Thank you very much for having me here, Manisha. So, yep, despite the funding winters, we managed to attract fresh capital. That's about $15 million from both domestic venture capitalists as well as foreign venture capitalists. Thanks to our sustainable business model, as well as we managed to drive business with a positive net margin, and then we have got sustainable, you know, unit economics as well. So that's what probably, you know, worked well for us in raising new capital. So as you know, like, we are a full-stack aquaculture technology provider, and wherein, like, we are offering technology solutions as well as market linkage solutions to the multiple stakeholders in this value chain, be it a farmer, be it a retailer who provides inputs to the farmer, or someone who is buying seafood from the farmers, and finally, And finally, nowadays we had managed to bring formal capital to the aquaculture value chain through the financial providers.
Raj, help us with what is the overall total market in India when you talk about aquaculture? What is the kind of growth that we're looking at? And when you do talk about tech penetration, how much is that?
Sure. So we are talking about a $25 billion market opportunity in aquaculture in India. So largely the shrimp gets the limelight because of the export-oriented business. But there is a huge opportunity in the fish aquaculture business as well. So we are like— these statistics would help us understand the business better. So India is the 2nd largest aquaculture producers in the world, and we are one of the largest exporters of frozen shrimp to the world. By just exporting seafood, we are earning close to $7 billion worth of foreign exchange every year. And this sector is considered to be a sunrise sector as it is growing 10% CAGR every year. So, and rightly said, the government is also placing much of importance to this sector so that they would be able to improve the farmers' income.
Clearly. The other thing that as every sector is looking at is sustainability. When it comes to aquaculture, how is that?
Sure. Of course, in India, there is a very limited penetration of technology that impacts negatively about the farm production efficiency, as well as the market linkages. So as we move forward, I see like we need to be having like more thrust on the technology adoption. So the biggest pain point in technology adoption in India is like twofold. One is like, you know, the right kind of awareness needs to be created, as well as we need to, you know, come up with the right business model so that like we'll be able to, you know, fund the technology adoption as well. So this is kind of, you know, that's when we need startups as well as the policies that need to, you know, support this kind of transformation in Indian agriculture sector, as well as we need to be like also move from the export-focused, you know, business to we need to be like also focusing on the domestic market penetration. So with the domestic market penetration, we would be able to, you know, command the right price for the commodity of the seafood because it would be like less susceptible to the international fluctuations of seafood.
Raj, I want to squeeze in one final question, and this is about Budget 2023. I mean, you know, with less than one month to go and all the factors that you pointed out to us, what are the 2 listings that you would want to put out to the Finance Minister?
Right. So there are 2 things that I already talked about. The one is, you know, improving the production efficiency at the farms by improving the technology adoption. So somewhere we need support from the government on, you know, raising awareness of technology adoption in the farms. And the second thing is, is there a way we could incentivize the technology adoption at the farm level? That's the first one. The second one is improving the domestic market consumption. By you know creating some new you know campaigns like you know like we had created increasing the egg consumption in the poultry sector. The same way we need to be also you know talking about how do we improve the domestic consumption of seafood in India. So it will eventually help farmers to you know improve their revenues through the aquaculture activities.
Okay, all right. Thanks Manisha for taking us through that conversation. Well, more updates flowing in. Dabur is flashing on your screen. Screen. India business expected to report low to mid-single-digit revenue growth. So a bit of, a bit of a subdued outlook which is coming in there. But we'll put the entire update into context for you. The healthcare portfolio returned to positive growth trajectory. A couple of more statements coming in. We'll do one thing, we'll wrap up on the show, but Business Lunch will take this and all the other stories forward.
