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Fish and meat e-commerce company FreshToHome receives Series A funding
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Thursday, 30 May, 2019, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
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FreshToHome, an Indian e-commerce company in the fish and meat space delivering over 8,000 orders a day to 4,00,000 customers, has received Series A funding to fuel its expansion plans.
The Bengaluru-based company is backed by some of the leading entrepreneurs and investors in the world, including Mark Pincus of Zynga Inc; David Krane, managing director, Google Ventures; Rajan Anandan of Google; Paval Ongole, ex–India head, Softbank Capital; Walter Kortschak of Kortschak Investments; Pete Briger, chairman of Fortress Investment Group; Timothy Flaherty, co–founder, Silver Creek Capital; Cadir Lee of Zynga and OhmConnect, and Alex Garden of Relic Entertainment, Nexon, MSFT, and Zynga. However the funding details have not been disclosed.
The company which has operations in present across Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Kochi, will soon be launching in Mumbai and Pune. The factories are a combination of manufacturing centres for processing and packaging fish, meat and vegetables, and distribution centres.
“Despite the presence of a couple of players in this space, our USP is 100 per cent fresh and zero per cent chemical products. Our products are tested at Asia’s top lab. We also have certificates on our website for our customers to verify. This is the zero per cent chemicals side of the brand. When it comes to freshness, we don't freeze our seafood. Fish have water molecules in them which contribute to the flavour. When you thaw frozen fish, the water molecules melt and is released from the fish. What you are left with is tasteless fish. We only give you fish that is straight from the coast,” said Shan Kadavil, founder and chief executive officer, Freshtohome.com, told F&B News.
“We created a patent-pending technology called the Commodities Exchange Platform, on which fishermen can auction fish to us by sharing images. We then have our trucks pick up the products, that head to our processing unit, where they are cleaned and cut,” he added.
“Venture capitalists and private equity players are extremely receptive to fund a venture like ours. In fact, multiple companies like FreshToHome, Licious and others in the same sector have been funded. They are aware of the potential this market holds. The seafood market is pegged at $50 billion while the poultry and mutton is worth about $30 billion. This makes the industry ripe for disruption,” stated Kadavil.
The company objective is to offer premium chemical free food at a value price. “This would mean working with farmers and fishermen directly, to eliminate middlemen out of the supply chain. What we are really working on is to reinvent the food supply chain, working with farmers and fishermen directly. We are soon planning to add more products to our inventory, such as fruits and vegetables, cold-pressed oils, flour etc. The idea is to push the distribution across e-commerce platforms, retail stores and other channels across geographies. Our mission attracts people at the top level, and at the lower level, we hire people from the unorganised sector and upskill them,” said Kadavil.
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