Agricultural produce in India often loses value before it reaches retail shelves. Much of the sorting is still done manually, leading to inconsistent grading, damaged produce, and losses across the supply chain.
While advanced optical sorting machines are available globally, their high costs and large size make them impractical for regional mandis, local collection centres, and smallholder farms.
Hyderabad-based Segritech is looking to address this gap with compact, AI-powered optical grading machines that can sort fruit at the farm gate or collection point.
Founded in 2022 by Hetendra Singh, Sri Kusulu Devalla, and Vijay Pratap Singh, the startup emerged after the founders had to pivot their earlier supply-chain venture, Tikkly.com, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Interactions with farmers, exporters, and mandi traders made us realise that automation in fruit and vegetable handling was a critical pain point,” says Hetendra Singh.
How the technology works
Segritech has developed a modular range of AI-powered grading and packing machines available in two models: Mini Sort, priced at Rs 10 lakh plus GST, and Fast Sort, priced at Rs 20 lakh plus GST.
The compact machines use complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) and RGB cameras, along with near-infrared and ultraviolet imaging, to capture high-speed images of produce.
Custom computer vision and deep learning models analyse the surface of each fruit to identify skin characteristics, fungal marks, sunspots, and physical scars.
The machines can grade several crops, including pomegranates, apples, oranges, mangoes, kiwis, avocados, tomatoes, and potatoes.
“The machine processes 10 to 12 fruits per second, giving us a throughput of about two to three tonnes an hour at a 95% accuracy rate,” Hetendra Singh says.
While core camera components and actuators are imported from Japan and other overseas suppliers, Segritech handles design, structural fabrication, and assembly in-house in Hyderabad.
Its machines are currently deployed commercially for grading pomegranates and apples, while a paid pilot is under way for oranges.
Customers and deployments
Segritech operates in the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G) segments, targeting farmer producer organisations (FPOs), mandi aggregators, and retail warehouse networks.
The startup has completed four deployments for paying customers, including Swiggy Instamart at its Bengaluru warehouse.
In Bhuj, Gujarat, a deployment involving 80 to 100 pomegranate farmers recorded a 30% increase in price realisation through more precise grading.
“By separating export-grade produce from lower tiers at the first stage of processing, growers avoid spending on transport and storage for defective fruit,” Hetendra Singh says.
The startup is also in discussions with the Rajasthan government to introduce automated grading tools under a programme targeting 8.1 million farmers.
Funding and expansion plans
Beyond post-harvest sorting, Segritech is developing autonomous harvesting robots equipped with tactile sensors and specialised robotic dexterity to pick delicate fruit such as pomegranates.
The robots are currently at Technology Readiness Level 5, or the prototype stage, and the company aims to have them operating in field conditions within six months.
Segritech has raised Rs 80 lakh in total seed funding to support technology development and team expansion.
This includes an initial Rs 10 lakh from Avishkar at IIIT Hyderabad, followed by a Rs 70 lakh round in 2024. Of this, Rs 45 lakh came from TIH Foundation at IIT Bombay and Rs 25 lakh from VIT Vellore.
Over the next 12 to 18 months, the startup aims to deploy more than 100 grading machines.
“Our vision is to build the mechanisation layer on top of which a truly digitised fruit and vegetable supply chain can operate,” Hetendra Singh says.
Segritech is part of YourStory's Tech30 cohort—a showcase of India's most promising startups of 2026, unveiled at TechSparks Bengaluru.
Edited by Teja Lele