Amazon leads Series D for India's FreshToHome

Several existing backers re-upped, including Iron Pillar, Investcorp, Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), and Ascent Capital, while E20 Investment, Mount Judi Ventures, and Dallah Albaraka came in as new investors. It comes two years after a USD 121m Series C led by Ascent, ICD, Investcorp, US-based Development Finance Corporation, and Allana Group, a major local food exporter.

Amazon launched Smbhav Venture Fund in 2021 with a view to backing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It is part of a broader agenda to digitise 10m SMEs, enabling USD 10bn in exports from India, and creating 1m jobs by 2025. The company also wants to bring 1m offline retailers and neighbourhood stores onto the Amazon India marketplace.

FreshToHome represents the fund’s largest investment in India to date. It takes the start-up’s overall funding past the USD 250m mark.

Founded in 2015 by Shan Kadavil, previously country manager for India at Zynga, teamed up with Mathew Joseph, a food export industry veteran, FreshToHome claims to be the largest fully integrated online brand in fresh fish and meat e-commerce globally. Its farm-to-fork proposition – which includes product quality guarantees and doorstep delivery – proved popular during COVID-19.

The company now works with more than 4,000 fishers and farmers and millions of customers across 153 cities in India and the United Arab Emirates. It offers more than 2,000 certified fresh and chemical-free products. While there are a dozen brick-and-mortar stores, most sales are transacted online through platforms including Amazon.

Kadavil told Moneycontrol that the Series D valuation is more than twice what it was at the Series C stage. He added that the company is now generating USD 130m in annualised revenue, having grown 10x in three out of the last four years.

“We've also seen bottom lines growing quite rapidly. The latter is really what enabled us to do one of the largest fundraisers in Indian consumer tech,” Kadavil said. “While it is lower than Series C, we are only raising as much money as we need. There's no point raising more money than you require.”

FreshToHome’s principal domestic rival is Licious, which has traditionally focused on meat more than fish. The company closed a USD 150m round in March 2022 at a valuation of USD 1.6bn. Its backers include Temasek Holdings, Multiples Alternate Asset Management, IIFL Asset Management, Brunei Investment Agency, and Kotak Private Equity

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Expansion
• Consumer
• India
• Amazon
• Iron Pillar
• Investcorp
• Ascent Capital
• Growth capital
• food & beverage
• TMT