Karnataka, India-based seafood supply chain platform Captain Fresh has secured USD 3 million (EUR 2.5 million) in seed capital to help it expand.
Established in April 2019, Captain Fresh is an online platform that matches seafood providers with retailers. It claims to offer services including facilitatation of e-auctions for sourcing, standardization of seafood supply, securement of on-time payments, and use of digital traceability systems in its operations.
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 550 retail businesses in all formats.
The funding round was led by Matrix Partners India and Ankur Capital, and was participated in by Incubate Fund and other marquee investors including Jitendra Gupta (Jupiter Money), Amrish Rau (Pine Labs), Asish Mohapatra (OfBusiness), Revant Bhate (Mosaic Wellness), and ADB Ventures, (the venture arm of the Asian Development Bank), according to a company press release posted on Yourstory on 10 March.
The fund will help Captain Fresh “continue to expand operations and invest deeper in its sourcing and distribution capabilities, building a world-class team, and invest in technology.”
Captain Fresh CEO and Founder Utham Gowda said the company’s revenue grew tenfold in the last 18 months, helping it get closer to its sales target of USD 1 million (EUR 841,500) per month.
“We are digitally transforming the highly inefficient fresh fish and seafood supply chain in India by aggregating the fragmented retail demand across the country and linking them to the small fishermen and farmers throughout the Indian coast,” Gowda said.
Ankur Capital Partner Krishnan Neelakantan said Captain Fresh has potential to make changes to the supply chain for India’s seafood market, which has an estimated value of USD 30 billion (EUR 25.2 billion).
Captain Fresh announced in August 2020 it had raised USD 2.3 million (EUR 1.9 million) in a pre-series A round of funding, which it said it would use to increase efficiencies across its supply chain.
Gowda did not respond to a request from SeafoodSource for additional information regarding the latest fundraising round.
Photo courtesy of Captain Fresh
