Venture capital firm Matrix Partners India has led an investment of $10 million (Rs 70 crore) in dairy startup Country Delight.
The Gurugram-based startup’s existing investor Orios Venture Partners also participated in the round, as per a statement.
Country Delight said it will use the fresh capital to scale up its operations across the country.
“This is the first step for us to achieve the goal of building one of India's largest consumer brands that is direct-to-home,” said Country Delight co-founder Chakradhar Gade.
Gade and Nitin Kaushal founded Country Delight in 2013. The startup offers delivery of fresh milk, paneer, curd, and ghee to homes via subscription model. It sources its products directly from dairy farms and currently caters to customers in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Pune.
Country Delight competes with the likes of Doodhwala, which is backed by agri-focussed venture capital firm Omnivore, Delhi-based Farmery and iOrganic in Gurugram.
TechCircle had reported in November that Doodhwala was raising up to $12 million (around Rs 85 crore) in a Series A round of funding.
“We have been tracking Country Delight for more than a year now and have been very impressed with Chakradhar and Nitin’s vision for it backed by strong on-the-ground execution and customer feedback,” said Avnish Bajaj, managing director of Matrix Partners India.
Country Delight had posted net sales of Rs 8.2 crore for the financial year 2016-17, up from Rs 5.4 crore in the previous fiscal, as per VCCEdge, the financial data platform of VCCircle.
Matrix Partners
Incorporated in 2006, Matrix Partners India has over the years evolved from a quasi-private-equity investor to a conventional venture capital firm that primarily focuses on tech startups. It recently closed fundraising for its third fund.
Matrix has so far backed more than 60 companies including cab-hailing firm Ola, mobile payment services company Mswipe, digital healthcare venture Practo and social commerce platform Limeroad.
Matrix’s previous bet in the dairy space was on milk and grocery delivery startup DailyNinja.
