Karnataka, India-based seafood supply chain platform Captain Fresh has raised USD 12 million (EUR 10.2 million) in a Series A funding round.
The fundraising round was led by venture capital firm Accel, and participated in by existing investors Matrix Partners India, Ankur Capital, and Incubate Fund; along with angel investors including Souvik Sengupta (Infra.Market), Rajesh Yabaji (BlackBuck), Revant Bhate (Mosiac Wellness), Ramakanth Sharma (Livspace), Amrish Rau (PayU), Jitendra Gupta (Jupiter), Asish Mohapatra, and Ruchi Kalra (OfBusiness).
The funds will be used to “make deeper investments on supply-side tech, expand distribution globally and continue to invest behind their team,” according to a release from investment firm Ankur Capital on 19 July.
Before this round, Captain Fresh had also raised USD 3 million (EUR 2.5 million) in March and USD 2.3 million (EUR 2 million) in August 2020.
Established in April 2019, Captain Fresh is an online platform that matches seafood providers with retailers. It claims to offer services including facilitation of e-auctions for sourcing, standardization of seafood supply, securement of on-time payments, and use of digital traceability systems in its operations.
“Over the last 24 odd months, we have iterated and fine-tuned the playbook for efficiently aggregating demand and supply, validated by a 10x growth spurt through the pandemic," Captain Fresh Founder and CEO Utham Gowda said in a statement. "We are thrilled to find ourselves at this unique intersection of a large unsolved problem, a highly capital efficient business model and backed by a high-quality investor set."
Captain Fresh opened its business in Bangalore and has expanded operations to other cities across the country. The company is partnering with leading brands in the meat and seafood sectors to bring its brands online and is currently serving more than 600 retail businesses in all formats in 10 cities in India.
