Fish and meat distribution start-up FreshR raises $1.2mn in latest funding round

New Delhi

Building India’s largest fish and meat distribution business, FreshR has recently announced that it has raised $1.2mn in funding led by Axilor Ventures and 1crowd. FreshR will use the fresh funding to grow and expand its geographical footprint, develop and implement its tech stack, and grow its team.

Founded by Ambika Satapathy and Sadananda Satapathy, FreshR uses a combination of operational efficiency and technology integration to aggregate an extremely fragmented national demand base and ensure quality, variety and secure high-value transactions for its customers.

Commenting on the announcement, Ambika Satapathy, Co-founder, FreshR said, “The Indian meat industry, of which General Trade and HORECA (Hotel/Restaurant/Catering) make up the largest segments, suffers from fragmented demand, high perishability, and under-invested, opaque supply chains. This leads to poor product quality and massive wastage. Our vision is to organize the domestic market by using technology to cater to this fragmented demand and investing in world-class infrastructure to manage pan-India sourcing and distribution.” 

Since its inception, FreshR has farmed, traded, processed and distributed highly perishable meat products in some of the most remote geographies in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. FreshR’s physical and digital infrastructure is currently spread across six states in East and North India. 

Talking about the company, Prachi Sinha, the Deal Lead at Axilor, added, “FreshR’s full-stack model and digital footprint are key to increasing their relevance to their buyers and distributors. FreshR has been able to achieve higher than industry growth while maintaining healthy contribution margins.”

The company also launched an application earlier this year which is a one-of-a-kind resource used to standardize prices and grades for the sector and allows bulk buyers from across India to place orders and track quality processes. 

“Ambika and Sadanand are quintessential entrepreneurs who have built a strong business that targets the meat and fisheries supply chain industry, bringing high-quality standards, transparency and financial access to the various stakeholders in the value chain. Their tech lead model helps integrate a highly fragmented industry bringing in significant efficiencies in creating time and place utility for highly perishable products. We look forward to working with them as they enter a very exciting phase of growth,” said Natasha Kothari, Partner at 1Crowd.

FreshR had earlier raised a pre-seed round from Villgro, Upaya Social Ventures, Beyond Capital Fund and other early-stage funders.