Captain Fresh raises $25 Mn in ongoing funding round

Captain Fresh, a fish and seafood tech startup, has raised  $25 million as part of a continuing larger funding round. The extension of the series C round is joined by Nekkanti seafoods group and British International Investment (BII), a UK-based development finance institution and impact investor, and a few family offices.

Proceeds will be used to fuel its distribution presence in the US and Europe, and enhance multi-origin vertically integrated seafood platform, among others, the company said in a press release.

With this, Captain Fresh has raised a total of $45 million across multiple tranches in its Series C  extended round with $20 million raised in September last year. Strategic Business Innovators (SBI) and Evolvence fund led the first tranche with participation from Tiger Global, Prosus, Accel and Matrix Partners India. The firm also raised $13 million in January this year and will close the extended Series C at $48 million.

As per startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Captain Fresh was valued at around $480 million when it raised $13 million and is likely to close the ongoing round at $500 million.

Five-year-old Captain Fresh’s product portfolio encompasses over 100 species of fish and seafood, sourced from over a dozen countries globally and catering to customers in more than 30 countries. Captain Fresh has offices in India, the US, Dubai,  Paris, Oslo, Amsterdam and Madrid.

The firm claims that it handles over 80,000 metric tonnes of seafood annually with India constituting 90% of this. Some percentage of demand also comes from Southeast Asia.

Captain Fresh recently completed the acquisition of a 40-year-old, Paris-based, shrimp cooker and distributor, Senecrus, as part of its EU expansion strategy.

As per TheKredible, Captain Fresh’s gross revenue surged nearly 4X to Rs 817 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2023 while its losses also shot up 2.6X to Rs 294 crore in the same period.