FreshToHome, a Bangalore-based e-commerce startup that sells fresh vegetables, fish, chicken and other types of meat, has raised $ 20 million in a new round of financing as it seeks to expand its presence in the nation.
The Series B round for the start was led by Iron Pillar, with Joe Hirao, the founder of ZIGExn from Japan, also taking part in it. The startup, which closed its $ 11 million Series A funding round three months ago, has raised $ 33 million to date.
FreshToHome sells “100 percent” pure and fresh meat and vegetables in Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune, the last two that it recently entered. It says it doesn’t add any preservatives or other chemicals to extend the shelf life of the product. (Typical meat sold in a retail store is riddled with chemicals and could be months old.)
Unlike most other markets, FreshToHome has built its own supply chain network, giving you better control over food quality and delivery. It uses trains and planes to move inventory, and it has become one of the largest customers for several local airlines.
The startup sources vegetables and fish directly from 1,500 fishermen and farmers on 125 coasts of the nation. Use an application to negotiate with farmers and fishermen.
You continue to expand your control over all aspects of your business. “Today, a large part of our poultry comes from institutional farmers. Now we go one step further and process the chicken at the slaughter level ourselves, ”Shan Kadavil, CEO of FreshToHome, told TechCrunch in an interview.
FreshToHome can deliver perishable items the same day and as soon as up to two hours, Kadavil said.
The startup also recently started operations in the UAE and has opened brick-and-mortar stores in Bangalore and Chennai.
FreshToHome has amassed 650,000 customers, compared to 400,000 at the end of May, in 10 cities in India and recently began selling milk in Bangalore, another market segment that remains largely unstructured in the nation. Every day it receives 14,000 orders and processes 20 tons of fresh food.
It recently crossed $ 30 million in annual direct sales to consumer, making it the largest e-commerce platform serving this category. It’s seeing 30% month-over-month growth, said Kadavil, who previously managed technical support for Support, and operations in India for gaming firm Zynga.
And that growth has helped the startup gain attention. Several major players in the nation, including Amazon India, which recently expanded to include the perishables category and Flipkart, have been in talks with FreshToHome to acquire some stake in the startup, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
And there is a great opportunity in space. The Indian cold chain market is estimated to grow to $ 37 billion in the next five years.
In addition to directly sourcing their supplies from farmers and fishermen, FreshToHome also serves as a micro-CV, giving them access to some up-front money and resources to produce more from their farms. It also guarantees that you will buy their products again.
Kadavil founded FreshToHome with Mathew Joseph, an industry veteran who has been dealing with fish exports for over 30 years. Joseph started India’s first e-commerce company in fish and meat called SeaToHome in 2012.
FreshToHome will use the fresh capital to expand its network of contract farmers and add 200 to 300 tons of additional produce each month.
In a prepared statement, Anand Prasanna, managing partner of Iron Pillar, for which it is the first investment in the food technology space, said: “FreshToHome’s brand proposition has been to provide 100% fresh food with 0% chemicals. It is not an easy thing to achieve in India on a large scale. Through the intelligent use of big data and machine learning, they have created a sustainable supply chain, offering a fair price to consumers, fishermen and farmers, for their premium products… We love companies that solve such difficult problems in large segments market in India through a unique system. Technology enabled pits!
