Supply management startup Farm Taaza secures $8 Mn series-A funding

Bengaluru-based Farm Taaza, a fresh produce supply management company, has raised $8 million in its series-A round of funding from Hong Kong-based Epsilon Venture Partners, and others.

Tara India Fund IV, which is managed by IL&FS Investment Managers, among existing investors also participated in the round.

The company has previously raised $1.5 million from Silicon Valley-based angel investors.

A B2B startup, Farm Taaza will use the proceeds to expand across south India, since the startup right now has operational centres in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Ooty. The money will be used to make technological upgrades as well.

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"We want to enable a seamless supply chain from farm to store and our next focus will be to leverage machine learning, AI and data analytics for improved decision making," said Kumar Ramachandran, CEO of Farm Taaza.

Started in 2015 by Kumar Ramachandran, Farm Taaza sources fruits and vegetables from farmers and delivers it to kirana and retail stores.

Farm Taaza caters to over 1,400 farmers and supplies 150 varieties of fruits and vegetables to clients including hotels and hospitals. The company is also focusing on reducing wastage that comes from supplying fruits and vegetables to different destinations by improving the efficiency of the supply chain process.

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The startup currently gets over 200 orders a day from clients and supplies which translates roughly to 20 tonnes on a daily basis.

Fram Taaza gets over 60% of its revenues from kirana stores and the rest from modern retail outlets. The company saw Rs 19 crore in revenues in 2016 and expects to see Rs 35 to Rs 40 crore in revenues in 2017.

Backed by Phaneesh Murthy, the company’s clients include Big Bazaar, HyperCity, Manipal Hospitals, Apollo Hospitals, among others and it competes with Chennai-based NinjaCart, which has raised a similar investment amount from Accel Partners, and Nandan Nilekani's NRJN Trust.

The agriculture sector is key to nation’s growth in GDP and it contributes to more than 55% of employment in India. According to the data by Euromonitor, vegetables and fruits marketing is an approx $150 billion market, which is growing at nine percent on a yearly basis and it’s expected to reach $224 billion by 2020.

Farm Taza: Website