Fresh meat and fish e-tailer FreshToHome, based in Bengaluru, raised $121 million funding in a Series C fund led by Dubai Investment Corp. (ICD), the Dubai government’s main investment arm.
In addition to a substantial $19 million follow-on investment by Series B lead investor Iron Pillar, Investcorp, Ascent Capital, US International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) and Allana have participated in the round.
Shan Kadavil, co-founder and chief executive of FreshToHome, said, “We are just beginning to scratch the surface of a very wide market and the current capital increase will help us realize our full potential through rapid expansion in India and the Middle East.”
For any consumer tech startup in India, the company said this was the largest Series C funding.
The company directly supplies fishermen and farmers with fish and meat and uses its patent-pending AI-powered supply chain technology and a cold chain network to eliminate intermediaries and eliminate delivery time to 24-36 hours. Farmers and fishermen electronically bid on the company’s app for their yields, which lets the company have greater control over the quality and prices.
In the midst of the covid-19 crisis, the startup reported growth as customers switched to e-commerce, backed by the brand pledge of “100 percent new and 0 percent chemicals.”
“Other start-ups of fresh food, including Licious, also saw a rise in demand as customers opted for high-quality meat and seafood.” Covid-19 has become a defining moment for the industry as customers are looking for safer ways to buy fish or meat and freshness in perishables, “Kadavil said. Thousands of fishermen and farmers have also sponsored the FreshToHome platform to sell their produce during the pandemic.
In addition to the UAE, it has 1,500 registered fishermen on its platform and is sold across Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.
On its website and app, FreshToHome processes 1.5 million orders per month and has an annualized run rate of ~600 crores.
FreshtoHome was founded in 2015 by Shan Kadavil and Matthew Joseph and is based in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. FreshtoHome’s range of products includes fish, poultry, mutton, steaks, and fillet. Fish consists of shell, freshwater, and marine. Furthermore, it enables suppliers to supply their seafood and meat to the website.
FreshToHome has previously received over $31 million funding from investors such as Iron Pillar, Das Capital, CE Ventures, and a host of angels. In 2019, with the participation of Das Money, Kortschak Investments, TTCER Partners, Al-Nasser Holdings, M&S Partners, Al-Nasser Holdings & Abdul Azeez Al-Ghurair from UAE, PLB, and other Asia and Valley-based investors, FreshToHome also raised $11 Mn in Series A led by CE Ventures.
