Indian startup FreshToHome, which sells fresh fish and meat to consumers in the South Asian market and the Middle East, has found a new backer: Amazon.
Amazon, through its India-focused Smbhav Venture Fund, has led a $104 million Series D funding round in the Bengaluru-based startup, the two said Tuesday. The government of Dubai and Iron Pillar also participated in the new round for the startup, which also counts the development branch of the US government among its backers.
This is the largest check issued by the $250 million Smbhav Venture Fund to date. The new round brings FreshToHome’s all-time raise to more than $250 million.
Started in 2015, FreshToHome is one of the biggest players vying for a share of the $100 billion Indian fish and meat market. Most Indians are not vegetarians, but today’s market is run according to an age-old system.
FreshToHome brings efficiencies to the market by streamlining the meat and seafood sourcing infrastructure and improving product quality and delivery time by leveraging its own rigorous processing plants and extensive supply chain network.
For example, a customer who orders fish from Delhi to Dubai on Monday will have their item, which was purchased on Monday morning, delivered on Tuesday.
But for FreshToHome, and a handful of other startups competing for the same $100 billion Indian meat market, one of the biggest challenges is building trust with the customers. The wet market holds the lion’s share of all meat and fish sales in India and offers customers the opportunity to inspect every item before reaching for their wallets.
Shan Kadavilco-founder and CEO of FreshToHome, told businesskinda.com in an interview that it took the startup about seven years to reach the competitive position it has today.
“My co-founder is a fish exporter. He has been active in this space for over 30 years. It’s a very difficult grassroots level change that you have to make. This business isn’t just about technology, it’s about people and relationships,” said Kadavil, who managed technical support for Support and the Indian operations for gaming company Zynga before FreshToHome was founded.
One of those confidence factors is convincing the fishermen and fishermen’s wives and poultry farmers to do away with cash. The second competitive moat is unity economics. Kadavil said the startup is operationally profitable and “proficorn”. (Proficorn is obviously the pinnacle of soonicorn and profitability. Kadavil declined to disclose the startup’s valuation in the current round.
FreshToHome today serves more than 4,000 fishermen and farmers and millions of customers in more than 160 cities in India and the UAE, offering more than 2,000 certified fresh and chemical-free products. The startup has expanded its presence by more than 100% in the past year, he said.
FreshToHome, which today sells the vast majority of its products online, including through Amazon, is expanding its physical presence. The startup operates a dozen brick-and-mortar stores, but these are not new properties it is renting, but a partial remodel of its existing warehouses and factories, Kadavil said, adding that the startup will open more such stores in the coming months as the number of stores expands. doubles. an omni-channel bet.
Amazon has expanded into grocery and fresh produce in India in recent years while boosting its logistics infrastructure in the South Asian market. But in recent months, the US giant has withdrawn from many business units in the country as it reels from global market conditions.
An investment in FreshToHome could be Amazon’s way of ceasing the meat and fish market to the startup for now. Kadavil stressed that Amazon’s investment is purely financial in nature and not necessarily strategic.
“Our vision with the $250 million Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund is to empower the next generation of innovative, technology-enabled companies led by visionary founders,” an Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund spokesperson said in a statement.
“We are impressed with the FreshToHome management team led by Shan Kadavil and they have done a quality job in creating a robust, technology-enabled supply chain and scalable backward integrated capabilities to serve customers as well as farmers and fishermen. We are excited to partner with FreshToHome for the next phase of its growth.”
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