FreshToHome, an integrated online consumer brand, has raised $104 million in Series D funding. The round was led by Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund.
Existing investors such as Iron Pillar, Investcorp, Investment Corporation of Dubai (the principal investment arm of the government of Dubai), Ascent Capital, and others also participated in this round. JP Morgan was the placement agent for FreshToHome for the fundraiser. New investors joining this round include E20 Investment Ltd, Mount Judi Ventures and Dallah Albaraka.
Launched in 2015, FreshToHome operates in more than 160 cities in India and the UAE and offers more than 2,000 certified fresh and chemical-free products. FreshToHome, which sells the vast majority of its products online today, including through Amazon, is also increasingly expanding its physical presence. The startup operates a dozen brick-and-mortar stores.
Amazon has expanded to grocery and fresh categories in India in recent years as it supercharges its logistics infrastructure in the South Asian market. But in recent months, the American giant has retreated from many business lines in the country as it reels from the global market conditions.
An investment in FreshToHome could be Amazon’s way to concede the meat and fish market to the start-up for the time being. Kadavil insisted that the investment from Amazon is purely financial in nature and not strategic, per se.
The company will use the capital in three areas, according to Shan Kadavil, CEO and Co-Founder, FreshToHome.
“The first is to expand our reach in all the new cities that we’ve launched; we launched about 100 new cities out of a total of 160 in the last 18 months, and that’s the primary use of capital. Furthermore, we have seen great traction in the UAE, and we now want to extend that traction to Saudi Arabia and other GCC markets, which will be the second use of capital.
Kadavil added, “Finally, the funds will be used towards going omnichannel and using an operating store. We’ve launched 30 stores on our platform in Bengaluru, and that has seen tremendous traction. So that’s a playbook we want to repeat across the company because it drastically reduces our cost of marketing and user acquisition.”
