Puneet Jhajharia

Puneet Jhajharia is the co-founder and director of CropConnect Enterprises Pvt Ltd.CropConnect was established in 2013 with an aim to connect Indian farmers directly to markets. Puneet along with the CropConnect team travelled over 70,000 kms and across 21 Indian states to identify the problem they wanted to solve. They found thousands of smallholder farmers including women growing nutritious indigenous crops more suited to the local agro-climatic conditions. These farmers were struggling to market these products beyond local markets.

Puneet wants to change the way Indians, farmers and consumers, grow and consume their food. Through his initiative, Original Indian Table, Puneet empowers and incentivises Indian smallholder farmers to grow indigenous crops by creatively marketing them directly to consumers looking to source sustainable, socially responsible products. Today, Original Indian Table sources from over 8,000 farmers across nine states and 13 farmer groups, of which four are women-owned.

Prior to CropConnect, Puneet started and led the India office of Grassroots Business Fund(an impact investing venture capital fund) and also worked as Vice President Technology at Goldman Sachs, New York. Puneet holds an MBA from New York University and a Masters of Engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, USA.