Food agribusiness startup Fresh From Farm has raised over Rs 3.2 crore in a seed funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures, a Gurugram-based angel investment firm.
Fresh From Farm is a demand-and data-based aggregation ecosystem that recognizes retailer demand trends and buys the precise amount from farmers. Growing and acquiring fresh produce, Fresh From Farm distributes it through an omnichannel online and physical presence while establishing a clear brand strategy.
The startup plans to use the raised capital for team building, inventory management, capital expenditure, Research & Development (R&D) and branding.
Rohit Nagdewani, Founder of Fresh From Farm, is an urban farmer and home cook and launched his hydroponic farming enterprise in 2018.
The startup sells its products under its private label “Happy Froot”. It aims to alter the dynamics of fruit and vegetable production through a targeted, data-driven predictive analysis, resulting in less food waste and better nutrition for all.
To reduce waste at the retailer level, the company assesses demand and supply patterns and works towards matching them.
“Our AI-based system currently has a confidence rate of 89%, allowing us to predict the exact quantities and qualities of fruits that can be sold at particular touchpoints. This has enabled us to reduce the wastage to 2-3% while the industry standard is 20-22%. We aim to achieve a 95% accuracy rate over the next 18 months,” said Rohit Nagdewani, Founder & CEO of Fresh Form Farm.
Speaking on the investment, Vinay Bansal, Founder & CEO of Inflection Point Ventures, said, “The customers are increasingly getting aware about what they eat, where is it sourced from and its nutritional value. The farmers and retailers on the other hands deal with the supply chain challenges resulting in million of tonnes perishables getting wasted every year.”
“We liked Fresh From Farm’s approach of leveraging tech to solve the challenges that directly impacts the three key stakeholders of the fruit and vegetables ecosystem. Their tech and the platform with predictive qualities prompted us to invest in the Company,” Vinay said.
According to the company’s statement, The total combined size of the fruits and vegetable market over the next 15 years is $500 billion. Fresh From Farm said it has access to 1000+ Sales Touchpoints for 30x growth in the next 12-15 months.
The company can save up to $14-16 billion in fruits and Vegetables annually. The business can provide fresh food to the entire Delhi/NCR region in just two hours as they have built a 6000 sqft collecting and distribution hub in the heart of South Delhi that helps them service the NCR in the most efficient way.
India is the second-largest producer in the world, producing about 300 million metric tonnes (MT) of fruits and vegetables each year, 40% of which is lost due to supply and demand imbalances, lengthy distribution chains, and inadequate infrastructure, among other issues.
The market is big and highly unorganized, where the margins on fruit and vegetable sales surpass $12 billion. Fresh From Farm is attempting to disrupt this area with their demand-based aggregation platform, which focuses largely on B2B commerce and employs predictive analytics and on-the-ground customer insights to decrease waste, eliminate middlemen, and simplify the supply chain.
Through its curation process, it helps buyers procure fresh and quality fruits, delivered to their doorstep, and increases income by 13%.
The startup claims that it made Rs 78 lakh in FY22 and is working to improve its fruits and vegetables trade margin.
Fresh From Farm also said it is using a proprietary AI-based approach to analyze demand and supply and create equilibrium, resulting in reducing the fruit waste at the merchant level by 15%-17%.
Source @Indianstartupnews
