Kunal Prasad
Co-founder and COO, CropIn

Kunal Prasad, co-founder and chief operating officer (COO), CropIn, is on a mission to enable 20 million farmers digitally around the world by 2022. His company’s core focus is to leverage technology to build a collaborative platfo­rm that will bring all the stakeholders in the agribusiness, including farmers, together.

Prasad has over a decade of experience in the technical and management ar­e­na, with substantial expertise in sales and business development, project management, pr­o­­­­­duct and customer experience. Pr­i­or to fo­unding Crop­In, he was wor­king at Tata Mo­tors in its sales and marketing division. In his role at CropIn, Pra­sad constantly stri­ves to dri­ve customer excelle­nce. He has hel­ped his team re­­ach out to over 1.6 million far­mers in 25 cou­n­tries and has guided them in solving criti­cal challe­n­ges, su­ch as improving farm pr­o­­d­uctivity, climate resi­lience, su­stai­nabi­lity and food sec­urity.

He recounts his company’s collaboration with World Bank on a project in 2017 as an enri­ching and memorable experience. Under the project, Crop­In helped farmers in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh follow sustainable practices in face of climate change. “The regions given to us were unique. Un­der­standing the climate-related challenges and other issues that small and large-scale far­mers experience was a good learning. Another unique factor was that the project was largely driven by women entrepreneurs in rural areas.”

Commenting on upcoming telecom trends, he says, “The sector is going through a revolution. With Jio bringing world-class telecom infrastructure to India, data services have become more accessible and affo­r­dable. Data services have penetrated th­ose segments of the Indian ma­r­ket that earlier were out of the internet ambit. Using the internet, service providers like CropIn can br­ing in­novative services to connect an­d benefit rural stakeholders.” On his management style, Prasad says, “At CropIn, we help people take up res­ponsibility so that they can emerge as leaders.” He also stresses on inculcating a culture of innovation, where each employee is encou­raged to bring in cutting-edge technology to work. Prasad has a degree in mechanical enginee­ring from BIT Mesra and an MBA from Great Lakes Ins­ti­tute of Mana­gement. He sp­ends his spare time with family, whom he considers his bi­g­gest support system. “My bro­ther has always had a positive influence on me. He was my mentor growing up.” Prasad also has a younger sister, who is following his  example as a budding entrepreneur.