Agri-tech startup Otipy has raised Series B funding of Rs 235 crore ($32 million) led by homegrown private equity fund WestBridge Capital.
Existing investors SIG and Omidyar Network India also participated in the round.
The fresh infusion have come in six months for the startup, operated by Crofarm Agriproducts, which had secured its Series A round last year.
"The Series B round of funding will support us as we expand to new pin codes, strengthen our supply chain, invest in cutting edge tech, add product categories and accelerate our mission of making fresh, nutritious food accessible to all," said Varun Khurana, Founder and CEO at Otipy.
Founded in 2016 by former Grofers executives Khurana and Prashant Jain, the business-to-business (B2B) business under the brand name of Crofarm supplies fruits and vegetables, sourced from farmers in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, to over 5,000 retailers.
Crofarm, which was primarily a business-to-business (B2B) platform supplying fruits and vegetables to retailers, forayed into online groceries with Otipy during early days of Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Otipy operates a farm-to-fork delivery model by procuring directly from farmers and delivering fresh produce to consumers. The platform claims its proprietary demand prediction engines ensure little or no stocking of fresh produce and delivers the produce in less than 12 hours.
"We are excited to partner with Otipy as they disrupt the daily essentials market via the community group buying model," said Sandeep Singhal, MD at Westbridge Capital.
Otipy claims to have over five lakh customers across Delhi -NCR as well as in tier II and III towns like Sonepat, Meerut and Bhiwadi.
It now plans to expand its operations to Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad and Chennai.
Otipy had earlier raised $2 million in 2020 led by IPV.
Several startups in the larger agri-tech segment have managed to pull in funding from strategic players and investors.
In February, VCCircle reported that silk business-to-business startup is in talks with investors to raise funding at $600-700 million valuation.
In January this year, JM Financial Private Equity’s second fund has led a Rs 100 crore investment in agri-tech platform BigHaat Agro Pvt Ltd, as a part of its Series B funding round.
Grain commerce platform Arya.ag had also secured $60 mn in funding led by Asia Impact SA in January.
FarMart, a SaaS-led food supply platform, pocketed $10 million funding round led by Matrix Partners India, in October last year.
