Agri-tech firm Superplum raises USD 3.8 mn for growth

Agritech startup Superplum has raised USD 3.8 million (about Rs 28 crore) in a fresh round of funding for capacity building and expanding its operation. The company said in a statement that it has completed its pre-series A investment round of USD 3.8 million.

Founded in 2019, Superplum has raised USD 6.8 million since its inception.

“The fresh capital is being used to build out farm infrastructure, augment the management team and expand the company distribution capabilities,” the statement said.

Superplum aims to address supply chain problems by designing and building a modern supply chain and digitising the farm-to-store network. Consumers get fresh and fully traceable food that is free of pesticides and farmers get a better deal.

Superplum’s products are available at large format retail chains including Spar, Metro, Reliance Retail, Starbazaar, and Future Consumer. The company has a distribution network of more than 320 stores in Delhi-NCR and Bangalore.

“India is the world’s second-largest agriculture market and we produce more than 110 million tonnes of fruits every year. However, we see broken supply chains, massive wastage, gluts, and shortages both geographically and over time.

“We plan to fix this broken channel between farm-fresh fruits and the end-user with a low-cost but a modern supply chain solution that can ensure fresher and higher quality products across the country, said Shobhit Gupta, Founder and CEO, Superplum.

Superplum started operations in 2020 and currently employs 70 people. Over the last year, it has delivered more than 1,000 tons of fresh produce during the COVID-induced shutdowns.

Its investors include Steve Jurvetson of Future Ventures, earlier DFJ ( Tesla, Baidu, Hotmail, SpaceX), Dan Rose of Coatue Ventures and earlier Facebook, Mark Siegel of Menlo ventures ( Uber), Kabir Misra of Softbank/RPS ventures, Curtis Macnguyen of Ivory Capital, Ron Snyder ( Flextronics, Crocs, Codigo) and Binny Bansal of Flipkart.
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