From neighbour’s request to startup: Kochi venture lets people lease mango trees

A simple request from a neighbour turned into a unique agricultural startup for Kochi-based entrepreneur Umesh Damodaran. His company Rent a Tree allows customers across India to lease mango trees and receive the harvest from them. The idea also aims to provide naturally ripened mangoes while helping farmers reduce their dependence on middlemen.

New Delhi: Kochi-based entrepreneur Umesh Damodaran turned an ordinary request from a neighbour into an unusual agricultural business. His startup, Rent a Tree, allows people to lease mango trees and receive the fruits harvested from those trees.

Umesh ran an edu-tech startup in Bengaluru between 2018 and 2023. During those years he travelled frequently between Bengaluru and Kochi. On one such trip he bought export-quality Alphonso mangoes from Palakkad in Kerala and shared them with his neighbours and colleagues in Bengaluru, according to a report in The Hindu.

One neighbour liked the mangoes so much that he asked Umesh to bring more on his next trip. Later the neighbour asked if he could reserve the entire harvest from one tree. That question gave Umesh the idea to start a business where customers could lease mango trees.

“That family became our first customer. We were........

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