FreshToHome Raises $104 Million from Amazon Smbhav Venture, others

New Delhi: FreshToHome, which sells fresh fish and meat to consumers in the Indian market and the Middle East region, has courted a new backer: Amazon.

Amazon, through its India-focused Smbhav Venture Fund, has led a $104 million Series D financing round in the Bengaluru-headquartered startup, the two companies said Tuesday. The new round for the startup, which also counts the development arm of the American government among its backers, also saw participation from the government of Dubai and Iron Pillar.

This is the largest check that the $250 million Smbhav Venture Fund has written so far. The new round takes FreshToHome’s all-time raise to over $250 million.

Started in 2015, FreshToHome is one of the largest players battling for a slice of the $100 billion Indian fish and meat market. FreshToHome is bringing efficiency to the market by streamlining the sourcing infrastructure of meat and fish and improving the quality of the produce and their delivery time by using its own rigorous processing plants and vast supply chain network.

But for FreshToHome, and a handful of other startups vying for the same $100 billion Indian meat market, one of the biggest challenges is establishing trust with the customers. The wet market commands the lion’s share in all meat and fish sale in India, offering customers the ability to inspect each item before reaching for their wallet.

FreshToHome today serves over 4,000 fishers and farmers and millions of customers in over 160 cities in India and the UAE and offers more than 2,000 certified fresh and chemical-free products. The startup has expanded its presence by over 100% in the past one year.

FreshToHome, which sells the vast majority of its products online today, including through Amazon, is also increasingly expanding its physical presence. The startup operates a dozen brick-and-mortar stores, but these are not new properties it’s leasing but partial refashioning of its existing warehouses and plants, Kadavil said, adding that the startup will open up more such stores in the coming months as it doubles down on an omni-channel bet.