Kota Startup Makes Electricity From Cow Dung, Saves ₹2.5 Lakh Monthly

Farmers in India have long sought an intervention. Whether in the form of financial resources or knowledge, many struggle to make informed decisions.

The result is either meager returns or a consistent state of poverty and disadvantage.

While the Government has taken steps towards helping this essential section of society, it is only the beginning. And startups in this space are one of the biggest rays of hope.

When Amanpreet Singh was doing his BTech in Electrical Engineering from Rajasthan Technical University, little did he know that he would go on to launch a dairy startup called Gau Organics, help farmers, and later get acknowledged by the Prime Minister of India.

THE BEGINNING

Amanpreet Singh, a native of Rajasthan, was always passionate about the nutrition industry.

But he didn’t want to take a plunge just like that.

Amanpreet had a plan. And the plan was to gain as much on-ground experience as possible, gain mastery, and then bring his expertise to Kota.

He did his BTech, then studied Dairy Science from the National Dairy Research Institute, and then went to the Tel Aviv University in Israel to understand and learn the ins and outs of dairy automation.

He also worked at renowned dairy cooperatives like Nestle and Amul to further hone his skills.

Amanpreet’s family had always been farming wheat and rice for ITC. They’re established farmers for the company for more than twenty years.

But Amanpreet wanted to make a brand - and delve deeper into Tier II and Tier III cities.

Dairy and essential grocery being the most regular purchases of every Indian family, it was easy to zero down on the same for business.

And this is how Amanpreet Singh started Gau Organics in 2015.

EARLY JOURNEY

Talking to Startup Pedia during an interview, Amanpreet said, “The early days were all about finding a market fit and taking out a bunch of loans.”

He started by knocking on the doors of various finance firms and secured a handful of loans. Amanpreet also invested his personal savings in the startup.

Gau Organics was registered in 2015 and officially launched in 2016 with a 50-acre land in Kota.

Amanpreet had a simple vision - to help farmers diversify their produce and grow value-added crops that have the potential to accelerate their earnings.

In the process, he also wanted to be the medium through which the produce of the farmers is sold - ethically and fairly.

Gau Organics became that very medium.

Amanpreet Singh and his brothers started discussing the plan with a small number of farmers. Plus investing resources in Research & Development proved useful. 

Farmers agreed to their proposal and were eventually educated on growing value-added crops instead of raw ones.

As Amanpreet puts it, “Times are changing. And as much as people like organic food at their doorsteps, the kind of organic food they want has also changed. Fewer people want wheat. More people are interested in multi-grain bread.”

In the initial phase of the business, Gau Organics focused solely on retailing on Amazon. The team also did direct home delivery of products like ghee and oil in Kota and nearby cities.

Things began to look up. And the dairy startup opened its first retail store in 2017.

EVERYTHING FRESH - GAU ORGANICS

Since 2015 to 2020, Gau Organics was surviving. But it truly began to thrive in 2021, which is when the startup gained profitability.

It’s surreal how the Covid-19 pandemic actually gave wings to Amanpreet Singh’s business.

How did that happen? Simply because Gau Organics had already gone digital before 2020. The team had a robust website up and running, had started investing in paid search campaigns, and online marketing on e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Shopify.

So when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and everything went digital - Gau Organics was more than just prepared.

Cherry on top was the sudden decrease in the startup’s customer acquisition cost. Their marketing costs suddenly came down.

You guessed it!

The pandemic had already convinced people of the natural way of life and how important it is to consume organic products that can be traced back to their source. 

Amanpreet said, “More and more people were steering away from diets laden with processed foods.”

And Gau Organics became one of the fastest-growing organic produce and dairy farms.

COW DUNG & ELECTRICITY

Amanpreet Singh didn’t stop at just educating farmers and diversifying their produce into more organic crops.

He wanted to innovate. And innovate he did.

Amanpreet Singh and his team built an electricity generator that works on methane. For the uninitiated, methane is produced by the breakdown of organic materials. In this case, it was the cow dung on Aman’s farm.

Amanpreet tells Startup Pedia, “We use this generator to run operations on the farm and for other business processes. It saves Gau Organics around Rs 2,50,000 to Rs 3,00,000 in electricity bills every month.”

When they first made the generator, it had costed them upwards of Rs 66 lakhs. But all thanks to experience and strategy, the biogas generator can now be made at Rs 27 lakhs.

GROWTH AND SUCCESS

What began with a team size of just a handful of 10 people has now become a full-blown business with 60-70 people as partners, farmers, and operators.

Gau Organics also serves around 4,500 people (online and offline) on an everyday basis.

The startup’s best-selling product is the Gir Cow Ghee which is made using the traditional method of bilona. Amanpreet refined processes and was able to bring down the cost of the ghee from Rs 3,800 in 2017 to Rs 2,700 in 2024.

Gau Organics was also acknowledged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.

As far as funding is concerned, Gau Organics hasn’t raised any funds till now.

In the same interview, Amanpreet Singh mentioned, “This is a long-term journey that I am looking at. I have had a few opportunities to get funded by angel investors but it’s not what I want at the moment. Getting investments also mean diluting equity. A lot of brands seem to forget that in the glaze of high valuations and fundings.”

FUTURE PLANS

Amanpreet Singh has a solid plan for the next few years.

Towards the end of 2024, Gau Organics plans to enter the franchise model and open more outlets in the process.

The startup also wants to innovate biogas generators that can be used on a large-scale by farmers. The team plans to approach Nagar Nigams and Gram Panchayat to then buy the same for their area’s livestock and crop farmers.