Captain Fresh, an Indian harvest-to-retail platform for seafood, has reportedly bagged USD 50 million in a Series C funding, thus witnessing a twofold increase in its valuation to USD 500 million in just three months.
Existing investors Tiger Global and Prosus Ventures led the most recent funding round, while another existing backer Accel also participated in the event. Captain Fresh is now focusing on expanding its services in existing local areas and forays into overseas markets
Notably, the B2B marketplace for animal protein, which had raised over USD 100 million in funding and was previously valued at about USD 200 million in a Series B round, disclosed that it was in discussions to raise nearly USD 10 million in another new funding round.
The founder and Chief Executive Officer at Captain Fresh Utham Gowda was formerly an investment banker and spent years keeping track of the seafood industry. He was instrumental in helping one of the largest seafood exporters in the industry as it ventured to go public.
Despite the company’s public listing plans being canceled, Gowda became thoroughly well versed with the ins and outs of the market.
The CEO stated that the seafood business is a massive sector but is also very messy. The industry accounts for billions worth of consumption each year. He further claimed that he had a good idea of how the Indian other developed markets viewed this category and had the opportunity to get hands-on experience on the production floor.
Gowda’s experience and investment seem to be paying off, as Captain Fresh currently provides a highly connected platform that helps fishermen and farmers sell nearly 100 tons of fresh fish and nearly 36 different types of seafood species per day.
The startup, which was founded in 2019, has set up more than 50 collection centers in the country and is enabling farmers to supply their products to over 2,500 businesses across almost all the coastal states in India.
Source Credits –
https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/06/captain-fresh-fish-seafood/