For an entrepreneur with no formal background in engineering, electronics or dairy technology, the road to building a deeptech solution for India’s dairy sector was an unlikely one. But for Amit Chavan, founder, AVN Agrobharat, it began with a simple question: what happens to milk before it reaches the analyser?
Originally from Borpadale, a small town in Maharashtra, Amit began working while still in the eighth standard. His career took him through finance, sales, and insurance, eventually leading to a stint as a zonal manager at Policybazaar. This later led to the startup AVN Agrobharat in 2024, co-founded with his wife, Nilam Chavan.
Tech by chance
“A friend offered me an opportunity in his IT company. I told him that I knew nothing about IT, but he said, ‘Your logic is good. If we explain things to you, you will learn and do it.” That exposure sparked an interest in Internet of Things (IoT) and automation. The turning point came while working on an automation project for the dairy sector.
Milk analysers were already widely available, but he noticed a gap that existed even before the milk reached the machine. Milk collected in different climatic conditions could arrive at collection centres at varying temperatures. For reliable FAT and Solids-Not-Fat (SNF) analysis, the sample needed to be appropriately conditioned to around 25°C before testing. This was particularly relevant in warmer regions such as Gujarat and Rajasthan.
{{/usCountry}}Milk analysers were already widely available, but he noticed a gap that existed even before the milk reached the machine. Milk collected in different climatic conditions could arrive at collection centres at varying temperatures. For reliable FAT and Solids-Not-Fat (SNF) analysis, the sample needed to be appropriately conditioned to around 25°C before testing. This was particularly relevant in warmer regions such as Gujarat and Rajasthan.
{{/usCountry}}“I realised that simply having an analyser was not enough,” he says. “I started asking, ‘How can we ensure that the right milk sample, at the right temperature, reaches the analyser every time?’ That question became the foundation of MilkPro.”
Instead of building yet another milk analyser, AVN Agrobharat set out to address the pre-analytical process — sampling, conditioning, temperature variation, manual handling and operator dependency.
Finding solution
To understand whether the problem was significant enough to warrant a business solution, the founder took to the road. He estimates that he has travelled more than one lakh kilometres, meeting farmers, dairy operators, collection centres, cooperatives, milk unions, private dairies and technology partners.
“Those were not always successful meetings, but every visit helped us understand the problem more deeply,” he says.
The result was MilkPro, an automated milk quality control system integrating automated milk sampling, sample conditioning, temperature control, sensors, control electronics, analyser integration, automated cleaning and IoT/data connectivity.
Developing it, however, meant overcoming the founder’s own lack of technical training.
“I did not come from an electronics, engineering or dairy-technology background. I had to learn continuously,” says Amit. Instead of beginning with a large team, AVN Agrobharat gradually brought together technical professionals, external experts, domain mentors and industry partners. Development involved repeated prototyping, laboratory testing, field trials, customer feedback, modification and retesting.
Today, the company says MilkPro has reached the Beta/advanced prototype stage, with four units deployed, more than 365 operational days and over one crore litres of milk tested. A patent has also been filed for the core technology.
To the market
“A dairy customer cannot be convinced simply through a presentation. They need to see the technology working in their actual environment and understand the economic value it creates,” he says.
AVN Agrobharat therefore follows a B2B, field-driven go-to-market model involving demonstrations, paid pilots, direct sales, dairy partnerships, institutional programmes and customer references.
The company says one paid pilot resulted in farmers receiving ₹2 more per litre for their milk, while milk procurement-related costs reduced from approximately ₹8.63 per litre to ₹3.20 per litre.
Funding
MilkPro is currently priced at approximately ₹8 lakh per unit, with an estimated manufacturing cost of around ₹2 lakh. The company also plans recurring revenue through AMC and cloud services, currently pegged at approximately ₹1.5 lakh annually.
AVN Agrobharat has so far been largely bootstrapped, with more than ₹40 lakh of Amit’s own resources invested in the company and product development, alongside institutional support, incubation assistance, grants and innovation programmes. It is now looking to raise ₹5 crore to move from validation to scale.
“Initially, the question was, ‘Can we build it?’ We built it. Then, ‘Will it work in the field?’ We deployed and tested it. Then came, ‘Will customers pay for it?’ We have started validating that. The next question is, ‘Can we scale it?’” he says.
The company plans to use the funding primarily for manufacturing and supply-chain expansion, sales, research and development, customer deployments and technical hiring.
Plans ahead
Over the next three years, AVN Agrobharat aims to reach more than 500 dairy collection-centre installations. The larger ambition is to evolve beyond a hardware company into a dairytech platform combining hardware, IoT, AI, data, automation and cloud technology.
For Amit, however, the journey remains rooted in solving a problem he discovered on the ground. “You don’t need to know everything before you start,” he says. “You need the courage to start, the humility to learn, the willingness to listen and the persistence to continue until you create something that genuinely solves a problem.”