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Freshtohome secures $11M funding led by Hong Kong-based CE Ventures – ETtech.com


Freshtohome secures $11M funding led by Hong Kong-based CE Ventures
Freshtohome, an online seller of fresh fish and meat, has raised $11 million (Rs 76 crore) from a group of investors led by Hong Kong-based CE Ventures to fund its expansion into more cities and strengthen supply chain.

Das Capital, Kortschak Investments, TTCER Partners and some other Asia and Silicon Valley investors also participated in the Series A round of funding.

The Bengaluru-based startup, which currently has operations in Bengaluru, the National Capital Region, Kerala and Chennai, is looking to enter cities including Mumbai and Pune.

The main competition for the company is from the offline market as customers find it tough to still opt for online supplies in this segment, Shan Kadavil, founder and CEO of FreshToHome, told ET.

Meanwhile, Freshtohome is aiming to expand its offerings to categories like vegetables and fruits and has already begun a pilot in Bengaluru. The startup claims it has grown six times in the past one year and is currently getting 8,000 orders a day with 4 lakh customers. Its aim is to have 1 million customers by the end of this year.

Founded in 2015, Freshtohome works directly with the fishermen and farmers, removing the need of the middleman. “The challenge was for these fishermen to embrace technology and use the app, but now it has become easier,” said Kadavil.

In the online space, it competes primarily with firms like Licious backed by Bertelsmann and Vertex Ventures, and Gurugram-based Zappfresh.

India’s grocery market is estimated at over $500 billion, according to consulting company RedSeer. Of this, a mere 0.2% is online. Large e-commerce firms like Flipkart and Amazon have been scaling up their grocery businesses, apart from vertical players like BigBasket and Grofers.



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