Almost 30% of all flowers, fruits, and vegetables produced are lost – two-thirds at the farm itself – in India. For farmers, storage technologies are too costly, out of reach, and futile.
The penetration of cold storage continues to remain low in India; with the penetration of cold storage, its consistent usage remains as a question.
Acutely aware of the mismatch at the ground level, the team at RuKart developed an affordable, Recurring-Cost-free and green storage technology Subjee Cooler – that requires no electricity or solar power or diesel for its operation.; it needs 20 liters of water per day.
RuKart is founded (bootstrapped) by 4 IIT Bombay alumni in 2019. RuKart focuses on developing scalable green solutions that contribute to poverty eradication (Sustainable Development Goal, SDG 1), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), and economic growth (SDG 8) locally. Founded in June 2019, RuKart is well supported by founders’ alma mater, IIT Bombay. The 36 month old start-up is working across 10 states in Eastern, Central & Southern India.
The Subjee Cooler is made up of 7 layers of insulation walls which lowers the inside temperature than the ambient by a margin of 5 – 21°C (Maximum Intraday variation 2.0 – 2.5 °C) and maintains high relative humidity of 85 – 90%.
The low temperature, high relative humidity, and the low intra-day variation in temperature inside the Subjee Cooler preserve flower/vegetable crops (non-tuber crops) for a short duration: 4 – 6 days and aid farmers in planning their harvest better depending on the maturity level of the produce.
Subjee Cooler has proven helpful for retailers who deal with Flower/ Fruit/ Mushroom/ Vegetables.
Business Model:
RuKart operates through a B2B2C mode. The start-up is reaching to its customer segment (farmers < 0.5 acre of Vegetable/ Fruit/ Flower plot & retailers) through district or state-level business partners including organizations working with village-level entrepreneurs.
Further, the overall design & packaging has been done to enable easy dubbing of the audio portion in any language that a remote/rural learner feels comfortable with.
