On the coronary heart of India’s booming dairy sector lies a quiet paradox: whereas the nation leads the world in milk manufacturing, thousands and thousands of its small dairy farmers battle with low yields and skinny margins. Samrat Kaushik, a seasoned information strategist and IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, noticed this firsthand throughout visits to gaushalas and rural dairy farms. What he found set him on a mission that may turn into Moo Rakshak—a precision cattle diet platform aimed toward reworking what goes into India’s dairy animals to basically change what comes out.
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The Spark Behind the Startup
Kaushik’s two-decade profession in automation and analytics formed his perception in data-driven effectivity. But it surely was a deeper private expertise that lit the spark. Whereas engaged on self-sustainability initiatives in gaushalas, he encountered numerous small-scale farmers who fed their cattle primarily based on custom and guesswork. Vitamin, an element accounting for as much as 70% of a dairy farmer’s prices, was missed, resulting in poor productiveness and elevated methane emissions.
“What goes into the animal,” Kaushik realised, “defines milk yield, farmer earnings, and even local weather affect.” Thus, Moo Rakshak was born in November 2022, headquartered in Delhi, with discipline operations in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The enterprise was incubated at IIT Kanpur and different main analysis institutes, signalling early validation of its high-impact mannequin.
A Digital Protector of Cattle and Livelihoods
Moo Rakshak’s identify displays its mission: “Moo” for the cow and “Rakshak” that means protector in Hindi. The platform delivers clever, stage-wise feed suggestions powered by AI, laptop imaginative and prescient, and feed science. It provides in-house feed premixes enriched with probiotics, chelated minerals, and important vitamins.
Crucially, the platform will even be monitoring methane emissions from enteric fermentation—a key supply of greenhouse gases, permitting farmers to undertake eco-friendly practices and probably profit from carbon credit.
A Founder-Led Imaginative and prescient for Rural Influence
Kaushik and co-founder Nidhi Gautam, who serves as COO, lead a lean staff of eight professionals with experience spanning animal science, AI/ML, and rural operations. Grounded in empathy and fieldwork, the staff displays Moo Rakshak’s ethos of mixing fashionable expertise with conventional knowledge.
“Simply as Aadhaar created a digital identification for individuals, we envision a digital dietary identification for each dairy animal,” says Kaushik. This imaginative and prescient positions Moo Rakshak as a trailblazer in integrating rural growth with information science.
Precision with Goal
The platform’s major customers are India’s 80 million small and marginal dairy farmers, typically managing simply 2–5 animals every. Moo Rakshak addresses their challenges by personalised steering, reasonably priced feed options, and easy-to-use digital instruments. The startup employs ladies micro-entrepreneurs for last-mile supply and leverages FPOs, dairy co-ops, and agri-retailers for distribution and trust-building.
Its freemium enterprise mannequin provides primary advisory for gratis, with income streams from precision feed gross sales, paid subscriptions, and carbon credit score partnerships.
Rising Recognition and Tangible Influence
Since its launch, Moo Rakshak has made important strides in reworking India’s dairy panorama. With over 10,000 farmers impacted, the platform has delivered a median milk yield enhance of 28% and a 3x return on funding per animal.
This affect has not gone unnoticed. Moo Rakshak was named one of many Prime 50 Startups in Bharat Pitchathon Problem 3.0 by HEADSTART in August 2024 and recognised among the many Prime 50 Social Influence Startups by the Tata Social Enterprise Problem in collaboration with IIM Calcutta in September 2024.
It has additionally been featured in distinguished media shops like Dainik Jagran and DD Kisan. Additional, the startup was chosen as a part of the India Delegation to the UAE’s GITEX Broaden North Star Tech Occasion, representing Indian innovation on a worldwide stage below the Ministry of Commerce.
Constructing for Bharat and Past
Moo Rakshak’s instant focus is to scale throughout India’s dairy heartlands, deepen digital adoption, and forge partnerships for wider attain. Lengthy-term, the startup goals to increase into South Asia and Africa, the place smallholder dairy farming faces related structural challenges.
Past numbers, Moo Rakshak is creating measurable environmental and social worth: growing farmer earnings by 25–30%, decreasing feed prices by 15–20%, and chopping methane emissions by 10–12%.
