Dairy brand Country Delight is in discussions with private equity funds Temasek, Venturi Partners, and Premji Invest to raise $90-$100 million, valuing it at $500-$550 million.
The talks come at a time when the Indian direct-to-consumer (D2C) sector has seen a funding upsurge after gaining traction online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company will soon decide which investors it wants to go ahead with. Some existing investors, such as Matrix Partners and Orios Ventures, are also participating in the fresh funding round. The investment is expected to help Country Delight grow its grocery delivery business, an area where it will have to compete with other on-demand delivery service providers such as Blinkit (formerly Grofers), Fraazo, BigBasket, Swiggy, Instamart, Dunzo, and Zepto.
The Bengaluru-based firm raised $25 million led by Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners) in November 2020.
Founded in 2011 by Chakradhar Gade and Nitin Kaushal, Country Delight delivers food essentials like milk, bread, ghee (clarified butter) and paneer (Indian cottage cheese) to the doorsteps of customers.
The full-stack business sources all of its produce from a network of farmers within a 200-kilometre radius. The company says it serves almost three million customers and fulfils more than five million orders a month by targeting the affordable-premium category through a subscription model.