India’s FreshToHome Poised For Expansion After New Round of Financing

As business surges amid the coronavirus, Indian eCommerce startup FreshToHome, which sells fresh fish, meat, chicken and vegetables, has pulled down $121 million in new financing.

The Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), which is the principal investment arm of the government of Dubai, helped lead the financing round, along with Investcorp, Ascent Capital, an India-focused growth capital provider, and the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

Barclays was the advisor on the transaction, which represents the largest Series C investment round in the Indian tech sector to date.

Iron Pillar, which led the earlier Series B financing round, chipped in $19 million.

The injection of capital comes as FreshToHome expands amid rising demand, with consumers opting to order fresh meat, fish and other items online in order to avoid potential COVID-19 risks that come with shopping in crowded markets.

FreshToHome said it is now fielding 1.5 million orders per month on its online platform for fresh meat, fish and produce, with $85 million in annualized revenue.

Shan Kadavil, co-founder and CEO of FreshToHome, said he believes his startup is “just beginning to scratch the surface of a very large market.”

Armed with additional capital, FreshToHome will now double down on plans to expand throughout India and the Middle East, Kadavil said in a press release.

The Bangalore-based FreshToHome says it is now one of the top five e-grocers in the UAE.

“Due to safety concerns, consumers made the habit-forming shift to eCommerce and we saw online demand for our products going up many folds this year thanks to [the] safety guarantee of ‘100 percent fresh and 0 percent chemicals,’” Kadavil said. “FreshToHome stands by the brand’s assurance and creates enormous social and economic impact by enabling sellers to directly source from the fishermen and farmers with its patent-pending, AI-powered supply chain technology and aided by a state-of-the-art cold chain.”