Agritech startup Otipy raises USD 32 million to expand business

Agri-tech startup Otipy, which mainly sells fresh vegetables and fruits through its mobile app, has raised USD 32 million (Rs 235 crore) from investors including Westbridge Capital to grow its business.

In the series B funding round, existing investors SIG and Omidyar Network India also participated.

In July last year, the Gurugram-based startup had raised USD 10.2 million (around Rs 76 crore).

Launched in 2020, Otipy, which is part of Crofarm Agriproducts Pvt Ltd, is a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) ecommerce platform for fresh produce that includes vegetables, fruits, dairy and other grocery items.

Otipy founder and CEO Varun Khurana said "leveraging our fast supply chain and community leader network we aim to provide fresh, quality produce to consumers at the lowest price. We will continue to build on our proposition for value conscious consumers."

The series B round of funding will support the company as it seeks to expand business to new pin codes, strengthen supply chain, invest in technology, and add product categories, he added.

Otipy uses its technology to procure fresh produce from farmers based on the demand generated as per its prediction engines and delivers the farm fresh goods to customers within 12 hours of harvest.

The startup expects its turnover to jump nearly five times to Rs 100 crore by the end of this fiscal year.

The company's revenue stood at Rs 19.73 crore in the previous year.

Sandeep Singhal, MD at Westbridge Capital, said: "We are excited to partner with Otipy as they disrupt the daily essentials market via the community group buying model."

Otipy has over 5 lakh customers across Delhi NCR as well as tier 2/3 towns like Sonepat, Meerut and Bhiwadi. It now plans to expand its operations to Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad and Chennai.

Otipy moves more than 100 tonnes of fresh produce from the farms to its consumers every day.

In December, Khurana had said that the company aims to become profitable by 2023.

"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 had said.

Otipy said that it has the industry's lowest wastage of 3 percent.

Leveraging its community leader model, Otipy said it operates at the industry's lowest logistics cost as low as Rs 4/kg, from its warehouse to the consumer's doorstep.