Online vegetables and fruits seller Fraazo on Friday said it has raised USD 11 million (about Rs 82.31 crore) in a funding round led by Sixth Sense Ventures. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) backed NABVENTURES, and existing investors — Equanimity Ventures, Manish Choksi (Asian Paints vice chairman) and Apar Group also participated in the round, as per an official statement. With the new fund raise, the company is set to expand operations pan-India, while cashing in on the unprecedented digital adoption within the fragmented fresh-food market, the statement said.
The company has a network of micro-fulfilment stores and is able to deliver the commodities in 30 minutes in the financial capital. In the one year since its launch, it has served 1 million orders, it said. “Fruits and vegetables, the largest category in perishables, is completely fragmented, offline, with no MRP constraint, nor GST this, coupled with significant supply-chain moat, and high order frequency, makes it a highly scalable online opportunity,” Nikhil Vora, the founder and chief executive of Sixth Sense Ventures, said.
Verticalisation of supply-chain is critical for perishables, which is where horizontal grocery players have found it challenging, and the company has been able to address this by their fully-optimised fresh supply-chain, he added. The direct sourcing substantially increases farmers’ income and provides them seamless access to urban markets at attractive prices,” Nabard chairman G R Chintala said.
