FreshToHome in talks to raise up to $125mn
2 min read . Updated: 15 Jul 2022, 12:37 AM IST
PremiumOnline fish and meat delivery startup FreshToHome is in talks to raise ₹798-998 crore in a Series D funding round, two people aware of the matter said. The company is in advanced talks with US-based PE fund L Catterton and e-commerce giant Amazon and others
NEW DELHI : Online fish and meat delivery startup FreshToHome is in talks to raise $100-125 million ( ₹798-998 crore) in a Series D funding round, two people aware of the matter said.
The company is in advanced talks with US-based private equity fund L Catterton and e-commerce giant Amazon and others, the people cited above said on the condition of anonymity.
According to one of the people cited above, Amazon is planning an investment of around $30 million ( ₹239 crore).
FreshToHome is eyeing a unicorn valuation in this round though it will be a tough challenge given the slowdown in funding, the people cited above said.
“Large fundraises have hit a roadblock. FreshToHome may end up being valued at a maximum of $800-900 million ( ₹6,389-7,188 crore) under current circumstances," one of them added.
Queries emailed to FreshToHome and L Catterton went unanswered, while Amazon said it doesn’t comment on market speculation.
In an interview late last year, an official of Investcorp, one of the startup’s existing investors, was optimistic about the company entering the unicorn club. The company was founded in 2015 by Shan Kadavil, previously the India head of Zynga Inc., creator of online games such as FarmVille and Zynga Poker. The e-commerce platform delivers fish, seafood, poultry, meat, fruit and vegetables in several cities in India.
The company claims to deliver over 2 million orders monthly across more than 150 towns in India and parts of the UAE. The platform enables its sellers to source meat and fish directly from livestock farmers and fishermen and supplies fresh produce at mass-market prices in all major Indian markets, including Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kolkata and Kerala.
The company competes with Licious, another unicorn that in March raised $150 million in an extended Series F round of funding led by Singapore-based Amansa Capital.
Captain Fresh is another such company in the segment that has recently received a big cheque from the likes of Prosus Ventures (formerly known as Naspers Ventures) and Tiger Global Management.
FreshToHome, on the other hand, had last secured its equity funding in October 2020. It mopped up $121 million in its Series C funding round led by Investment Corporation of Dubai, the Gulf emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, and Bahrain-based alternative investment firm Investcorp. It snagged $20 million in a Series B funding round led by Iron Pillar in August 2019 and, three months prior to that, pocketed $11 million in its Series A financing.
