Ajinkya Rahane, a former Rajasthan Royals cricketer, has joined hands with the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA), Pune, to reach out to start-ups and small-scale companies. 

The MCCIA is comprised of legal, finance, technology, and agriculture domain experts, and it will curate the process of identifying and selecting the start-ups to be funded. Rahane and his advisors will take the final call before investing. 

Under his initiative ‘Ajinkya Rahane and Associates, the Mumbaikar reportedly announced a Rs 1 crore fund at MCCIA and would start his investment from the next month.

“The first seed investment would be made by end of December 2022 and the minimum other three investments by end of March 2023. Apart from Ajinkya, three more individuals have expressed their interest to invest in the fund,” the MCCIA team said. 

“Farmers are our hero and I always wanted to contribute towards their financial empowerment. I have made some investments prior to this fund; however, I was looking for an institutionalised and structured form of funding to agri-tech start-ups. Even though the funding will be in form of equity, I am not looking at monetary returns but want more in terms of a higher direct monetary positive impact on farmers.”

Belonging to a farmer family in Ahmednagar, Rahane first picked up his cricket bat when he was at a farm, where his grandmother used to work. Currently, he is playing for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).