• MooPay, a subsidiary of Stellapps, is revolutionizing the dairy farming industry in India with its innovative financial technology solutions.

• By providing direct digital payments to farmers and facilitating access to formal credit, banking, and insurance services, MooPay empowers farmers and enhances their economic well-being.

• This visionary startup is bridging the digital divide and transforming the way dairy farmers manage their finances, opening up a world of opportunities for their growth and prosperity.

The dairy farmers of rural India have had a bumpy ride when it comes to their finances. It's pretty much akin to riding a financial bull with them desperately clinging on to their dreams for prosperity and security.

India is the world's largest milk producer, and it has its own unique pattern of production, processing, and marketing/consumption of milk. Among struggles such as shortage of feed, breeding, health, and hygiene conditions, dairy farmers also face marketing and pricing problems. 

The most essential feature of the Indian dairy sector is that it is still predominantly unorganized. Of the total milk produced in India, only 18-20% is channelized via the organized sector. The unorganized sector is yet to participate in the modern processing infrastructure.

Dairy farmers often do not get their milk's worth of money. One of the reasons, amongst many, maybe because of the presence of a middleman. Despite knowing the issue, it is not easily solved due to a lack of income data to track affordability and, thus, access to formal financial institutions.

The farmers also lack access to banks. Fragmented financial systems, lack of transparency, and delayed payments limit the farmers of their true potential.

What is MooPay?

MooPay is a visionary startup that recognizes these challenges and has set out to create a solution that combines technology, financial expertise, and agricultural know-how to support these farmers.

It creates a robust technological infrastructure that is changing the way dairy farmers manage their finances. The IIT-Madras incubated dairy-tech startup, "Stellapps," has launched a first-of-its-kind, fully-automated direct payment platform, 'MooPay,' for dairy farmers in Rajasthan.

The digital technology solutions provider Stellapps is a first-of-its-kind end-to-end dairy technology solutions company in India. It is also one of the technology pioneers of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

MooPay is a subsidiary of Stellapps aimed at helping promote financial inclusion and economic empowerment of farmers. It is a fintech service provider that aims to reimagine financial services for Indian farmers. It enables the financial inclusion of smallholder farmers by facilitating access to formal credit, insurance, banking, savings, digital payments, etc.

Think of MooPay as a well-stocked toolbox; it equips the humble dairy farmer and transforms them into a financial pro! It will allow the farmers to take loans easily, have access to banks, not be cheated, and get paid for everything in terms of quality and quantity.

By alleviating their financial burdens, they will be empowered to unlock their full potential and be able to improve their income from dairy farming. MooPay addresses the issue of farmers' lack of access to banks by bringing all financial services to their doorstep.

It also provides agent banking facilities at the local milk collection centers, where the farmers can open a new bank account, deposit or withdraw cash from their bank accounts, transfer money to someone else, receive government benefits, and access many other banking services. Directly depositing payments in farmers' bank accounts will help enhance farmer savings. 

What is unique about it?


The MooPay system enables an automated digital payment solution that helps dairy officials transfer milk payments digitally to member farmers directly into their bank accounts.

Using technology deployed by Stellapps that automatically and digitally captures and brings the milk pouring data of every farmer, every day, to the cloud. The milk payment data is calculated faster than a cow can moo for the farmer and the dairy.

This enables them to quickly reconcile and make payments to farmers into their bank accounts. This system thus ensures that farmers receive 100% of their milk's worth digitally into their bank accounts, and with minimum friction ensuring there's no cash leakage.

This treasure trove of primary digital data is then analyzed to provide insights into farmer income for the first time in India and help provide innovative and appropriate financial solutions.

This simple innovation is thus helping solve one of the most significant challenges plaguing financial inclusion programs in rural India- lack of income data.

Using the historical data of the quality and quantity of milk that farmers pour, MooPay has created an alternate creditworthiness score, called mooScore, in consultation with Equifax.

This allows us to better predict the probability of default and thus enable access to numerous credit products that are exclusively designed for dairy farmers who do not otherwise qualify for the traditional loan products available in the market.

MooPay is a payment gateway for dairies and dairy farmers where dairy officials can transfer milk payments digitally to member farmers from the dairies' existing bank accounts to farmers' savings bank accounts.

Statistics

The MooPay platform has made direct farmer payments worth more than INR 1,000 million and disbursed more than 3,200 loans worth over INR 42 million. Its authorized share capital is Rs. 50,000,000, and its paid-up capital is Rs. 30,100,000.

This moo-vellous startup is bridging the digital divide and opening up a world of opportunities for farmers to access loans, insurance, and other financial instruments that can help them expand their businesses, invest in modern farming techniques, and improve their overall economic well-being.

In the long run, with the improved cash flow, they will be able to invest in better equipment, quality animal care, and sustainable farming techniques, leading to a greener future. 

Let's raise a glass of milk to the founders, Kamaljeet Singh and Ajay Pal Singh, for modernizing dairy farming as we know it and reimagining financial products for the farmers, the backbone of our country. 

Edited by Shruti Thapa