Using tech to buy, sell agri produce

The story of Hector Global began when Chennai boys Srinath Srinivasan, Sibhi Kumaran, and Aswath Kowligi Balaji met at the National University of Singapore while pursuing a master’s degree. When they returned home, they decided to set up their own startup. Their first venture was in the cross-border trade domain but focused purely on branded FMCG products. By early 2023 though they were looking at a different market opportunity.

“The idea for Hector Global was sparked during an exploratory visit to the Guntur mirchi yard,” says Balaji. “We were surprised to find that a single commodity — dry red chillies originating from this region — had an export value of more than $1 billion.” But what excited the trio most were the complexities involved: identifying the variety, assessing quality, finding the right supplier, grading, managing freight, and handling documentation. “We realized how challenging it would be for a buyer thousands of miles away in a different country to procure this commodity, especially since there is no option for returns or refunds.”

The three friends travelled to multiple mandis across India and visited wholesale markets globally. “We discovered that cross-border agri supply chains are extremely complex, and there was a need to build a solution to simplify procurement for global food buyers,” says Balaji. This led to them to incorporate Hectar Global, a B2B cross-border agri-commodity procurement platform, in January 2023 with Balaji as co-founder and COO, Kumaran as co-founder & CBO, and Srinivasan as co-founder & CEO.

In July 2023, the startup raised a seed round funding of $2.1 million led by Powerhouse Ventures with participation from WEH ventures, All In Capital, Indian Silicon Valley, and angel investors Anant Sarda and Adhish Ladha. “With that, we have scaled our portfolio to 15 commodities and a client base in 17 geographies with direct operations in four of them,” says Balaji. “Over the next couple of years, we will focus on strengthening our downstream capabilities in Africa, South, Southeast Asia,” he adds.

Currently, Hector Global has offices in Singapore, India, Bangladesh, and UAE. “We have a 17-member team and work across product categories such as rice, spices, pulses, oils, and nuts,” says Balaji. “Our operations span South Asia and Africa, where we are involved in the direct sourcing and distribution of agricultural commodities.”

Looking ahead, the company is focusing on aggressive geography expansion. “Over the next 3-5 years, our goal is to be a major contributor to the movement of agricultural commodities along the Asia-Africa trade corridor,” says Balaji. This will require deep sourcing capabilities in regions of origin and strong downstream networks in regions of consumption supported by technology. “Along with building a team of experienced traders, we will hire experts in artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop models that will enable data-backed trade decisions,” he says.

Future fund raises will be used to build direct operations in strategic markets, especially in Africa, South, and Southeast Asia, and to expand tech to optimise trade operations. “We will deploy additional funds to build robust on-ground teams to strengthen our sourcing and distribution capabilities and hire experts across technology and operations,” says Balaji.

Looking back, the Hector Global trio are unanimous that the smartest thing they did before incorporating their business was travelling across markets to experience the challenges in agri trade firsthand. “This ground-level understanding helped us validate that our solution wasn’t just interesting but necessary and helped maintain focus on solving real problems for global buyers,” he says.


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