eekifoods - Founders’ Journey

Eeki Foods visualises a future in which healthy, pesticide-free vegetables are affordable and easily accessible to everyone—a world free from malnutrition and deficiencies. But how did all this start? It started with two young and talented enthusiasts wanting to do something meaningful and live a purposeful life.

Founders’ Background

Abhay Singh (Co-Founder & CEO) hails from Uttar Pradesh, while Amit Kumar (Co-Founder & COO) is from a farming family in Rajasthan. Both of them became friends at IIT-Bombay while pursuing a five-year degree program in Materials Science. 

During their time at IIT-Bombay, they participated in various competitions in the field of robotics and automation and won numerous national and international awards. 

Both of them went on to work for different startups, with Abhay working in fields like product design and IoT & automation, and Amit focusing on mechanical engineering and business development.

The Idea

During their tenure in these various job roles, they felt that they could do much more with their lives. They were always passionate about building technology that lasts for decades and solves real-world problems. 

After a lot of research and groundwork, they found that the lack of high-quality foods and changing climate are huge worldwide issues that must be addressed as soon as possible. As a result, they decided to leave their well-paying jobs and devote all their time to this endeavour.

The Problem

To gain a deeper understanding of the problem, they started travelling across the country and interacted with a lot of farmers that practised different farming techniques. They also learnt about India’s diverse climatic conditions and its impact on crop production. This really helped them understand the loopholes in the current farming practices and the issues faced by an average Indian farmer. 

During this process of exploration, they simultaneously learnt about the new and upcoming farming technologies being developed internationally.

After understanding the domestic and international farming scenarios, they concluded that conventional farming is unsustainable and that the upcoming methods that promise to be the solution, are also expensive and not sustainable in the long run. 

Exploring the Possibilities

Experimenting with various farming methods

In March 2018, they came to Kota, Rajasthan and started their preliminary research by setting up a small rooftop polyhouse. 

At first, their plan was to conduct research on exotic vegetables, and after becoming successful, move to a bigger city to scale up the business. But during their first year of operations, they interacted with a lot of people and gained some valuable customer insights. They found that the Indian masses are not keen on consuming exotic vegetables; instead they just want their everyday vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies etc. for daily consumption. 

However, the availability of these high-quality vegetables was a major problem. So, they decided to stop focusing on exotics and work towards growing a wide range of Indian staple vegetables for the Indian public. 

They tried out different ways of farming, like using coco-peat as a growing medium, NFT, aquaponics, and hydroponics. But later discovered that these techniques are expensive and unsustainable.

And finally, in December 2018, eekifoods was incorporated. After 3 years of extensive research, they finally came up with a farming technology that makes it easy and cost-effective to grow healthy vegetables without using pesticides. 

The Future

Eeki Farm in Talera, Bundi

The founders want to implement their vision of making pesticide-free vegetables affordable and accessible to everyone. They want eeki farms to be spread across thousands of acres so that every individual can access high-quality vegetables at affordable prices and live healthy and prosperous lives.

To know more about eeki, watch this video.