EMPOWERING EARTH OBSERVATION AND AGRICULTURE, AMPLIFYING GROWTH: PREETI CHAUDHARY’S INSPIRATIONAL JOURNEY
Preeti Chaudhary‘s path from the corporate world to the commanding heights of entrepreneurship showcases her versatility and vision. As the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Harvest Global SSP, she brings over a decade of expertise with technology giants such as IBM Hong Kong, HCL, and BASF. Preeti’s deep understanding of technological interventions in Earth Observation, Geospatial tech. in Indian agriculture, combined with her relentless pursuit of innovation, has established her as a transformative leader in the business realm.
The Key Inspiration: The Beginning of a Lifelong Mission
Preeti’s foundation was shaped by the struggles of women in her community, inspiring her to question and defy the status quo. She worked hard, invested in a top-tier education, and built a career with global organizations to equip herself with world-class skillsets to create an impact on a larger scale. Preeti, a girl born in the mid-80s, grew up in a highly conservative upper-middle-class Jat family in Western UP. In her upbringing, she saw that women around her primarily engaged in managing the household, tending to livestock, or engaging in agriculture.
Women’s education in those days largely meant basic matriculation or pursuing courses such as home sciences, etc. The idea of building a career in fields such as science and technology was not only rare but also considered impractical by most people Preeti confided in—except for her parents. Preeti was exceptionally intelligent and consistently ranked among the top students in her class. Her academic achievements made her parents proud and motivated them to invest in her higher education.
Eventually, Preeti pursued chemical engineering from a top-ranking institution and worked with global companies. As she builds her deep technology space techpowered AI company, she emphasises the importance of encouraging merit irrespective of gender. She aims to provide a growth platform for candidates from various backgrounds and inspire youngsters to invest in the right education and skill set needed to pursue their dreams.
Transforming Industry Challenges into Opportunities
“As I speak in 2025, the presence of women in technology is still a rare feat. The statistics become even more concerning when we look specifically at women in space technology. I feel both proud and surprised to share that I am the only solo female founder of a space tech startup among the more than 250 space tech companies registered with INSPACE,” highlights Preeti. Going further back, statistics on women’s participation in top engineering colleges reveal a troubling trend.
The average percentage of women students in these institutions remains around 15-20%. This number continues to decline as women enter the workforce and pursue careers in science and technology, facing various challenges such as managing households and childbearing and raising. It is highly challenging for women to grow in an intellectually demanding technology environment. Having worked with global organisations across several countries,
Preeti has dealt with highly progressive as well as regressive mindsets in accepting women leaders and entrepreneurs. In India, there is still a long way to go to accept women entrepreneurs as formidable leaders. Preeti has faced challenges such as being taken less seriously and experiencing subtle gender biases, despite her leadership position in a global tech giant.
The Evolution of Women in the Business World
Women from various industries are making significant strides, proving their mettle. Top-tier institutions and workplaces are increasingly opening up for women and statistics show a substantial shift in societal attitudes towards accepting women as formidable counterparts and leaders.
Founding Harvest Global Systems: Transforming the Earth Observation including Agriculture
In 2021, Preeti took a monumental step towards making a broader impact by founding Harvest Global Systems, an innovative AI platform for Earth Observation including digital agriculture solutions. It is government-funded and has received support from top-tier institutions and organizations such as INSPACE, IISC, IIRS, etc. The company collaborates with global banks, governments, and crop insurance companies, providing geospatial technology solutions on PMFBY, YES TECH, and KCC, as well as assisting global food commodity traders and Foreign trade commissions, etc.
Before founding her company, Harvest Global Systems, Preeti worked with global organizations such as BASF and IBM Hong Kong. During this time, she had the opportunity to learn and build her skills in cutting-edge technologies and managing digital transformations and technology implementations across various industrie. Interestingly, during one of her projects, Preeti was able to create technology solutions for geographic assessments and agricultural mapping, leveraging satellite data and deep analytics.
Coming from a family of agriculturists and having witnessed the challenges in the Indian agri value chain very closely, this project sparked Preeti’s interest in researching technological interventions in Indian agriculture.
The Key Offerings
Harvest Global SSP Pvt Ltd is a programmatic remote sensing company that provides technology solutions and services in the field of Earth observation. The company serves various industries, including agriculture, forestry, hydrology, and geographic assessments. Currently, Harvest Global SSP offers software and solutions in areas such as AgriStack, Digital Agriculture, PMFBY, and YESTECH, as well as land records digitization and other Earth observation analytics.
The company also utilises AI to support industries like forestry, hydrology, and other on-demand turn-key projects. Harvest Global SSP collaborates with global banks, governments, and crop insurance companies rendering technology solutions on PMFBY, YES TECH, KCC, etc. global food commodity traders, and foreign trade commission traders, governments, research institutions and policy makers etc.
An Edge Over the Peers
Harvest Global Systems is the only AI and programmatic remote sensing company in India and it is globally recognised among highly specialised technology players, offering SaaS and PaaS as key technology solutions. As the company scales, it envisions building an integrated EO company capable of handling geospatial workloads in SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. Preeti founded Harvest Global Systems with the vision of automating Earth Observation analytics, thereby reducing dependence on third-party software and legacy systems.
This innovation significantly cut down process latency, achieving near real-time satellite and other satellite data processing.
Women’s Contributions to Leadership and Innovation
In addition to having strong hard and soft skills that are comparable to their male counterparts, one unique leadership style that women bring to the table is empathy. Preeti strongly feels women are better at handling human resources and diversity in workplaces. Women inherently are skilled managers and team builders, effectively executing tasks with careful attention to detail.
Striking a Balance Between Leadership and Personal Responsibilities
Achieving work-life balance in leadership roles is often a myth. For women, the choice between becoming a corporate leader or building their own business comes with significant compromises and tough choices. Creating businesses that have a global impact requires intense focus and substantial time investment, which can eventually lead to compromises in personal responsibilities. A supportive family can help women leaders manage this balance, but it often feels elusive. Many find themselves contemplating the need to sacrifice personal responsibilities in pursuing their passion for building impactful businesses.
The Impact of Women’s Leadership Styles
As the only female founder in deep space technology, Preeti has had her moments of noticing people’s surprise, shock, and awe seeing women in core and space technologies. Nevertheless, she and her team bring meticulous clarity and innovation to their approach to developing solutions, executing projects with equal finesse in execution, and managing operations.
Creating a Legacy of Innovation and Impact
Preeti aspires to build a sustainable global space tech giant that enhances lives and businesses while staying ahead in technological disruption.
Pearls of Wisdom
Invest in top-tier education; focus and focus; nothing should be bigger than your vision and ambition if you are driven to build something meaningful. Forget work-life balance Be prepared for seemingly never-ending hustle and embrace the roller coaster ride while you lay the foundations for a sustainable career or business.
