Clover launches D2C brand DeepRooted.co

Clover has launched its direct to consumer (D2C) brand “Deep Rooted.co” with a consumer app available as “DeepRooted” on the Anroid and iOS platform. It is a demand-backed supply chain solution for fruits and vegetables focused on quality, consistency, traceability and a high degree of predictability.

Catering to a growing market opportunity estimated close to $100 bn in B2B and B2C segment for vegetables and fruits, starting with Bengaluru and Hyderabad, Clover will invest over $2 mn in creating farmer-facing input-output technology, investing in supply chain and cold storage capacities and communication to grow the brand DeepRooted.

Avinash BR, one of the co-founders at Clover, said that with DeepRooted, their goal is to be India’s largest virtual farmer, facilitated by the company’s full-stack agronomy intervention on the supply side, and an omnichannel presence, along with a consumer-facing app on the demand side.

“Consumers will get consistent access to zero-contamination, high-quality fruits and vegetables while farmers can experience up to 3x increase in yield and income improvements,” he said. “Our research conducted over September – October last year found that consumer behavior is not to plan the buying of fruits and vegetables but to shop for it when the shortage is noticed. We see that consumers are slowly reverting to the pre-COVID preference of having the option to shop at neighborhood Kirana and modern trade stores.”

Avinash said that DeepRooted will invest in growing its distribution from the current 150 modern trade and neighborhood stores across Bangalore and Hyderabad to 500 and brand build to aggregate demand over multiple channels, including online via the consumer app and web e-commerce presence.

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High quality fruits and vegetables will be supplied primarily from its owned greenhouse and hydroponic farms and from a network of over 100 small-medium scale land hold farmers. DeepRooted will focus on catering to an urban city’s need for fruits and vegetables via a consumer demand-led cultivation process. It will follow an omni-channel strategy to cater to existing consumer shopping preference in the category and presence across modern and general trade.

All highly perishable vegetables are grown under the guidance of a team of 10 plus agronomists who guide the farmers from the seed-to-harvest stage. Most greenhouse and hydroponically grown produce is contamination-free.