Q1. You joined Agrizy as Head of Engineering and Products and have now been named Co-Founder and CTO. How would you describe that journey?
I see the appointment less as a change in designation and more as formal recognition of the role I have played in building Agrizy since joining the company in 2022. At the time, we were defining our product and technology roadmap, and my initial focus was on creating that foundation. Over the years, this expanded to include building our AI and data stack and developing the intelligence platform that now powers our new product development capabilities.
What changes with the elevation is the scale of the mandate. My responsibility now extends beyond building individual products or systems to ensuring that technology remains central to Agrizy’s global growth. That includes strengthening the platform, building the right technology organisation and ensuring that the decisions we make today create long-term value for our customers and manufacturing partners.
Q2. Agrizy positions itself as a technology-led organisation in a sector that has traditionally been offline and relationship driven. What does that mean in practice?
For us, being technology-led means embedding technology into core operating decisions rather than treating it as a separate support function. We apply it across partner evaluation, product development, quality assurance and supply-chain execution.
One example is our AI-powered credit evaluation engine for processing partners, which has reduced assessment turnaround time by approximately 90% compared with our earlier process. We have also piloted technology-enabled quality-assurance systems designed to improve consistency and reduce returns, along with the avoidable waste and transportation associated with rejected batches.
These may not be the most visible applications of AI, but they address persistent industry problems such as slow decision-making, inconsistent quality and fragmented information. We believe that solving these operational challenges repeatedly and at scale is where technology creates a lasting advantage.
Q3. The GenAI powered formulation studio is central to how Agrizy talks about its technology platform. Could you explain what it delivers for a brand?
New product development is typically a slow and resource-intensive process. Brands often go through several formulation iterations and trial batches before they know whether a concept is technically and commercially viable.
Our GenAI-powered formulation studio is designed to reduce uncertainty during those early stages. It helps convert a product brief into formulation directions that can be evaluated against relevant product, commercial and manufacturing parameters. This allows brands to explore alternatives and identify potential constraints before committing significant time and resources to physical trials.
Across the projects measured so far, we have observed an approximately 40% improvement in product-development timelines. However, AI does not replace food scientists or laboratory validation. It helps them begin with better-informed possibilities. Our technical teams review the recommendations, conduct trials and refine the formulation before it progresses towards commercial-scale manufacturing. The value comes from combining machine-led analysis with scientific expertise and manufacturing experience.
Q4. You have held multiple co-founder and CTO roles prior to Agrizy, largely within organisations serving SMB ecosystems. How has that experience informed your approach here?
My previous roles reinforced a consistent lesson: businesses in SMB-led ecosystems do not need technology that is impressive only in a demonstration. They need technology that removes friction from the problems they face every day.
That principle is highly relevant to food and agri-processing, where the ecosystem includes businesses with different levels of scale, digitisation and operating maturity. The challenges are often practical—fragmented sourcing, variable quality, limited data and slow decision-making. A solution will create value only if it fits naturally into existing workflows and produces recommendations that people can understand and act upon.
What is particularly different about food manufacturing is that technology must work alongside scientific judgement, regulatory requirements and physical production constraints. A formulation can look promising digitally but must still perform consistently in a laboratory and at commercial scale. That makes validation and close collaboration between technologists, food scientists and manufacturing teams essential.
Q5. Looking ahead, what does building a compounding technology advantage mean for Agrizy, and what can the industry expect next?
Our focus is on deepening the intelligence layer across formulation, sourcing and quality while creating stronger feedback loops between product development and commercial manufacturing. Every formulation developed, batch processed and quality outcome recorded can improve how the platform supports future decisions.
As Agrizy expands internationally, the platform must also become capable of addressing a wider range of ingredients, manufacturing environments, regulatory requirements and brand needs. The objective is not simply to add more tools, but to make the entire system more accurate and valuable as the network grows.
Ultimately, we want to build technology that helps brands move from concept to commercial production with greater speed, confidence and consistency. For me, that is the distinction between technology that supports an existing process and technology that creates a compounding advantage.
About Agrizy:
Agrizy is a tech-led Contract Research, Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CRDMO) built for global Food & Beverages (F&B) and Wellness brands. Founded in 2021 by Vicky Dodani and Saket Chirania, the company now works with 300+ brands across 20+ countries, backed by investors like Accion, Ankur Capital, Capria, Omnivore, and Thai Wah Ventures. In April 2026, Agrizy formalised what had effectively been true since its earliest days, appointing Markish Arun, who joined as Head of Engineering and Products, as Co-Founder and CTO. We spoke with him to understand what is driving Agrizy’s technology story.
