Bengaluru-based business-to-business (B2B) platform Onwo on Monday said it has secured $1.6 million (around Rs 13.2 crore) in a seed funding round led by Kae Capital.
The round also saw participation from Whiteboard Capital, 2 am VC, Kettleborough VC, Climber Capital and Point One Capital, among others.
The fresh funds will be deployed for hiring and platform development.
Onwo was founded in 2022 by former Flipkart executive Bipul Kumar. It is a cross-border marketplace to transact and fulfill orders of processed food products from Indian manufacturers. It offers end-to-end solutions in a full-stack digital model, involving contract manufacturing, quality assurance and risk management.
The company claims to have exported more than 10,000 metric tonnes (MT) of food products, with a repeat rate of 90%. It currently supplies to countries like the US, Canada, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman.
“Onwo’s full-stack solution will help Indian manufacturers and SMEs access the global markets in a fully managed and asset-light model,” said Kumar.
“Onwo is creating a digitised global food supply chain through contract manufacturing and a structured food export segment, allowing Indian manufacturers to ship processed products to the world,” said Gaurav Chaturvedi, partner, Kae Capital.
Founded in 2012 by Sasha Mirchandani, Kae Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm. The Mumbai-based firm typically invests in pre-seed to pre-Series A funding rounds with an average cheque size of $2-$3 million.
The firm has invested in 79 startups and claims a portfolio enterprise valuation of $8.52 billion. To date, the investor has made 14 exits. It counts Tata 1MG, Porter, Nazara Technologies, HealthKart, Zetwerk, Wysa, Square Yards and 1K as part of its portfolio.
Last week, the firm participated in the $3.7 million seed funding round of Software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Hatica. In 2022, the firm announced the final close of its third fund with a corpus of ₹767 crore (about $94 million).