Hubli-based fresh produce supply chain management startup Freshboxx Ventures has raised an undisclosed amount in an angel round led by Ashok Iron Works joint managing director Jayant Humbarwadi.
Existing investor Ravi Linganuri, an entrepreneur-cum-angel investor, also participated in the round.
Owned and operated by Freshboxx Services Pvt. Ltd, the startup was launched in December 2015 by Rohan Kulkarni. It was incubated at Sandbox Startups, a unit of the Deshpande Foundation.
The company procures fruits and vegetables directly from farmers and supplies them to retail outlets and restaurants, and operates in both the business-to-business and business-to-consumer segments. Freshboxx says its proprietary supply chain technology has helped reduce costs and errors, improved speed and reduced food wastage, besides achieving reliable service levels.
“Our strong network makes it possible to move the produce within 24 hours. With initial pilots, we have reduced our unsold wastage from 18% to 9% and we are confident of reducing it even further to less than 3%,†said Kulkarni.
Freshboxx operates across Hubli, Dharwad, Belgaum, Davangere, Bengaluru and Goa.
The company claims to have a network over 10,000 farmers and have clocked five-times growth in the past one year.
In September 2016, it had raised an undisclosed amount of seed money from Linganuri, and went onto make its first acquisition in December, picking up city-based last-mile logistics startup UrMajesty.
Agro-tech
Technology-based agro farming services, supply chains and retail businesses have generated considerable investor interest of late.
In October, fresh produce supplier Agrowave had raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from mobile app and cloud solutions firm Daffodil Software. The same month also saw Farm Taaza, a fresh produce supply chain management firm, raising $8 million in a Series A round led by Hong Kong-based Epsilon Venture Partners and Tara India Fund IV.
In April, Chennai-based omni-channel fresh produce distribution platform Waycool.in had raised $2.7 million from impact investor Aspada Investment Company.
In February, Delhi-based Paalak.in had raised funding from a clutch of angel investors. Around the same time, International Finance Corporation, the private-sector investment arm of World Bank, had said that it would make a debt investment of $30 million in ETC Agro Processing (India) Pvt. Ltd.
In another major deal, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd, the country’s largest micro-irrigation firm, had acquired Australian agri-tech firm Observant Pty. Ltd.
In September 2016, Ooty-based Lawrencedale Agro Processing India Pvt. Ltd, which supplies farm-fresh vegetables to organised retailers in South India under the Leaf brand, had raised an undisclosed amount from Denmark-based BESTSELLER FOUNDATION and US-based venture capital fund Unitus Impact.
In July 2016, Delhi-based RP2 Ventures Pvt. Ltd, which runs fresh fruit and vegetable supply chain venture Lemon Leaf, had raised its first external funding from two angel investors.