{"id":58257,"date":"2026-10-26T11:56:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T06:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailynewsindia.co.in\/index.php\/2026\/10\/26\/cold-konnect-a-three-generation-bet-on-indias-farmers\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T11:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T06:26:20","slug":"cold-konnect-a-three-generation-bet-on-indias-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailynewsindia.co.in\/index.php\/2026\/10\/26\/cold-konnect-a-three-generation-bet-on-indias-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold Konnect: A Three-Generation Bet on India\u2019s Farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Koundinya Pochampally, Founder &amp; CEO of Cold Konnect, is the cover story of CEO Thoughts Magazine\u2019s \u201cFuture Ready Company 2026\u201d edition (Vol. 3, October 2026).<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>New Delhi [India], October 24:<\/strong> Hyderabad-based ColdKonnect Tech Solutions is building a digital network for India\u2019s cold chain. It connects farmers, traders and companies with cold storages, refrigerated (reefer) trucks and cold-chain suppliers on one verified platform. Its founder, Koundinya Pochampally, describes the company less as a startup than as the third chapter of a family promise to India\u2019s farmers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI didn\u2019t set out to launch a startup. I set out to honour a fifty-year promise,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dailynewsindia.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/PNN-2026-10-24T100719212-1024x576-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2294\"><\/figure>\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Three generations, one mission<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story begins in the pomegranate orchards of Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh. Koundinya\u2019s grandfather, P. Sudhakar Rao, was a member of the Government of India\u2019s Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) and an advisor to ICAR\u2019s horticulture research institute. Over five decades he counselled farmers across four states, free of charge, and helped bring the Ganesh pomegranate variety to South India\u2019s drought-prone districts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The second generation, Koundinya\u2019s father, Dr. P. Upender Rao, founded the Coldcare Group in 1998. It went on to become an established cold-storage construction, operations and reefer-transport business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Koundinya returned to India in 2022 after his studies at the University of London, days before his grandfather passed away. Reading through his grandfather\u2019s handwritten advisory notes and his father\u2019s cold-storage blueprints, he saw the missing piece. Farmers needed a single place, on their own phone and in their own language, to find cold storage, arrange transport and get the information they need to sell well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTechnology can scale access, but it cannot manufacture trust,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery feature we build has to answer one question: does this help a smallholder earn more? That question came directly from my grandfather\u2019s field notebooks.\u201d<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The problem: information, not infrastructure<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">India loses a large share of its harvest after it leaves the farm. A widely cited ICAR-CIPHET study put annual post-harvest losses at about \u20b992,651 crore. Cold storage capacity has grown for two decades, yet many facilities run part-empty. A farmer still struggles to find a reliable storage in the next district when he needs it the next morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe gap is not capacity. The gap is information,\u201d Koundinya explains. \u201cA cold storage that nobody can find, book or trust is infrastructure that doesn\u2019t work. Policymakers build the highway. We build the GPS.\u201d<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Two apps, one verified network<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cold Konnect runs as two apps on a shared platform, both available on Google Play and the Apple App Store.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Cold Konnect User app<\/strong> serves farmers, traders and corporate buyers. They can search for cold storages and trucks by location and send requests for space or loads. The app also gives them an AI plant-disease scanner, live mandi rates and a community where farmers discuss crop problems and trade produce. It is built for rural India: multiple Indian languages and simple, jargon-free design.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Cold Konnect Partner app<\/strong> serves cold storage owners and truck fleet operators. Storage owners get temperature and humidity sensors installed by the Cold Konnect team, plus shareable temperature reports for clients and insurers. An inventory module tracks lots, marks and gate passes. Reefer and dry trucks get GPS tracking, with temperature monitoring on reefers, so a fleet owner sees every truck on one screen. Partners pay a simple yearly subscription with no commission on bookings or enquiries. Their facilities become discoverable to buyers across India.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Listings are verified before they go live, so buyers can trust who they are dealing with. Verified temperature records also let small operators compete for food-processing, pharma and export customers who demand compliance documentation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are not building new cold storages,\u201d says Koundinya. \u201cWe are filling the ones that already exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Building for generations<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Koundinya measures Cold Konnect\u2019s success in decades, not quarters. He sees cold-chain data as future public infrastructure. Verified storage and temperature records could support food-security planning, price stability and even farm credit, with a farmer\u2019s verified storage history one day serving as collateral.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His picture of success is a single morning in Anantapur. A pomegranate grower checks mandi rates and finds a verified cold storage nearby. He diagnoses a leaf disease in Telugu within seconds, books storage and transport, and gets a better price for fresh produce. In his post on the Cold Konnect community, he mentions that his grandfather once worked with Sudhakar Rao garu.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat,\u201d says Koundinya Pochampally, \u201cis the world we are building.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>About Cold Konnect<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cold Konnect (ColdKonnect Tech Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad) connects India\u2019s farmers, traders and businesses with verified cold storages, reefer trucks and cold-chain suppliers through the Cold Konnect User and Cold Konnect Partner apps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Website: <a href=\"https:\/\/coldkonnect.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">coldkonnect.com <\/a>| Email: info@coldkonnect.com<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>If you object to the content of this press release, please notify us at pr.error.rectification@gmail.com. We will respond and rectify the situation within 24 hours.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Koundinya Pochampally, Founder &amp; CEO of Cold Konnect, is the cover story of CEO Thoughts Magazine\u2019s \u201cFuture Ready Company 2026\u201d edition (Vol. 3, October 2026). New Delhi [India], October 24: Hyderabad-based ColdKonnect Tech Solutions is building a digital network for India\u2019s cold chain. It connects farmers, traders and companies with cold storages, refrigerated (reefer) trucks&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dailynewsindia.co.in\/index.php\/2026\/10\/26\/cold-konnect-a-three-generation-bet-on-indias-farmers\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Cold Konnect: A Three-Generation Bet on India\u2019s Farmers&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-58257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsindia.co.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsindia.co.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsindia.co.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsindia.co.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsindia.co.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsindia.co.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsindia.co.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsindia.co.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsindia.co.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsindia.co.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- BEGIN: X Global Ads Tracker -->
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