Rohan Iyer of FarmLink Bharat

It started with something small

My grandfather sold his tomato harvest at whatever price the mandi agent quoted – he never once saw the Bengaluru retail price. I built the comparison in a spreadsheet during my final year at VIT and could not unsee the gap.

The decision

I had an offer from a Pune IT services firm. The night before joining, I calculated that the agent made more from my grandfather’s tomatoes than he did. I never signed.

That decision is where FarmLink Bharat really began.

The part nobody posts about

Farmers did not trust an app from a 22-year-old. For the first six months I stood in mandis at 4 am, in the same mud, buying alongside them at my own risk. I lost ₹1.9 lakh of my education loan learning how grading actually works.

Then something shifted

One farmer, Shivanna, let me sell half his harvest through our channel as an experiment. He earned 22% more than the mandi that week. He told eleven other farmers. That WhatsApp forward was our real launch.

Where FarmLink Bharat stands today

FarmLink Bharat moves produce for 640 farmers across Kolar and Chikkaballapur to 90 retailers in Bengaluru. Last month we crossed ₹31 lakh in farmer payouts.

If you’re where Rohan Iyer started

Your first users don’t download trust – they watch you stand in the mud with them.

Rohan Iyer, FarmLink Bharat