Agritech startup Otipy, which mainly sells fresh vegetables and fruits through its mobile app, expects its turnover to jump nearly five times to around Rs 95 crore during this fiscal year, on the back of healthy growth in customers base. In July this year, the Gurugram-based startup raised USD 10.2 million (around Rs 76 crore) from investors including SIG and Omidyar Network to expand business.
Launched in 2020, Otipy, which is part of Crofarm Agriproducts Pvt Ltd, is a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) e-commerce platform for fresh produce that includes vegetables, fruits, dairy and other grocery items. “Our sales have jumped more than three times to Rs 25 crore in the first six months of this fiscal year, from Rs 7.76 crore in the year-ago period,” Otipy founder and CEO Varun Khurana told PTI.
Going by the current monthly run rate, he said the company expects sales of around Rs 70 crore during the second half of this fiscal. Total sales in the entire 2021-22 fiscal year is estimated at Rs 95 crore, nearly five times from the sales of Rs 19.73 crore in the previous year. Khurana expects the company to be profitable by 2023. “We have created a smart platform that’s gaining popularity among farmers, customers, and partners – who we refer to as community leaders,” Khurana said. He highlighted that customers’ orders have risen significantly in both volume and value terms.
“Otipy runs on a predictive algorithm that estimates demand and accordingly procures produce from farmers,” he explained. Otipy is currently catering to over 4 lakh customers in the Delhi-NCR region. It procures farm-fresh produce from more than 10,000 farmers across the country from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra. In just the first nine months of this calendar year, Khurana said the number of community leaders, or resellers, who have partnered with Otipy to deliver products to customers, has increased by more than six times.
“We have created a model that small business owners, particularly women, have found appealing and successful. We have 20,000+ community leaders or resellers helping us provide various products to our valued clients,” he said. Otipy claims to deliver fresh produce from the fields to customers’ homes in just 12 hours. It focuses on minimising wastages of fresh fruits and vegetables to protect profit margins.
On expansion, Khurana said the company plans to expand its operations to Mumbai, Bangalore, and Pune. Chennai, Jaipur, and Lucknow will follow soon after. The number of categories available would expand to more than 25 by March 2022. It also intends to increase its warehouse capacity and improve the technology that underpins its end-to-end platform, which supports its farmers, resellers, and customers. “From just over 33,000 customers by the end of the first half of last financial year, we now have over 4.50 lakhs. By March 2022, we estimate that we’ll have over 6 lakhs and more,” Khurana said.
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