Nimble Ninjacart vaults over India's Covid-19 lockdown hurdles

While supply chains across India have been disrupted by the nationwide lockdown, agritech startup Ninjacart’s well-oiled machine ensured it hardly felt the bumps

Ninjacart has been a notable exception to the Covid-19-induced chaos, with business running as close to normal as one could hope for

Its daily transaction volumes have only dipped from around 1,000 tonnes of fresh produce to 900 tonnes despite the present circumstances

With retail stores and supermarkets closed, Ninjacart experimented by inviting apartment complexes to place bulk orders

It also came up with an ingenious solution to avoid the dumping of perishable goods

The Covid-19 pandemic has crippled supply chains across India. Large online retailers and grocers such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Bigbasket are visibly struggling to service their customers in the midst of a 21-day lockdown announced by the Indian government on 24 March. But even as these big names stumble their way back to relative normalcy, one lesser-known name soldiered stoically through it—Ninjacart.

The Bengaluru-based agritech startup has been a notable exception to the chaos, with business running as close to normal as one could hope for during India’s countrywide lockdown. The company enables farmers to sell fruits and vegetables to retailers such as grocery stores and supermarkets.

AUTHOR

Sumanth Raghavendra

Sumanth is a serial entrepreneur with more than eighteen years experience in running startups. He is currently the founder of Deck App Technologies, a Bangalore-based startup attempting to re-imagine productivity software for the Post-PC era. Sumanth’s columns appear regularly in leading publications. He holds MBA degrees from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management, USA.

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