Fish and meat distribution startup FreshR raises $1.2 million in latest funding round

Fish & meat distribution startup, FreshR has recently announced that it has raised USD $1.2 million in funding led by Axilor Ventures and 1crowd. FreshR will use the fresh funding to grow and expand its geographical footprint, develop & implement its tech stack, as well as grow its team, the startup said.

Founded by Ambika Satapathy & Sadananda Satapathy, FreshR uses a combination of operational efficiency & technology integration to aggregate an extremely fragmented national demand base and ensure quality, variety and secure high-value transactions for its customers, an official statement said.

FreshR had earlier raised a pre-seed round from Villgro, Upaya Social Ventures, Beyond Capital Fund, and other early stage funders. 

Commenting on the announcement, Ambika Satapathy, Co-founder, FreshR said, “The Indian meat industry, of which General Trade & HORECA make up the largest segments, suffers from fragmented demand, high perishability, & under-invested, opaque supply chains. This leads to poor product quality & massive wastage. Our vision is to organize the domestic market by using technology to cater to this fragmented demand and investing in world class infrastructure to manage pan-India sourcing & distribution. 

Talking about the company,  Prachi Sinha, the deal lead at Axilor, added “FreshR’s full-stack model and digital footprint are key to increase their relevance to their buyers and distributors. FreshR has been able to achieve higher than industry growth while maintaining healthy contribution margins.”

“Ambika and Sadanand are quintessential entrepreneurs who have built a strong business that targets the meat and fisheries supply chain industry bringing high quality standards, transparency and financial access to the various stakeholders in the value chain. Their tech lead model helps integrate a highly fragmented industry bringing in significant efficiencies in creating time and place utility to highly perishable products. We look forward to working with them as they enter a very exciting phase of growth,” said Natasha Kothari, Partner at 1Crowd.