Captain Fresh, the online meat and seafood startup, has successfully raised Rs. 110 crores in its latest funding round. The primary contributors to this funding include Nekkanti Sea Foods from Andhra Pradesh, which led the investment with an infusion of Rs. 50 crores, and financial and investment firm Shakti Finvest, which invested Rs. 30 crores. Additionally, individual investors Ravi Shankar Pemmasani and Shibu Mathai contributed Rs. 27 crores and Rs. 2 crores, respectively.
The funding was facilitated through the issuance of 1,102 convertible preference shares, each priced at over Rs. 9 lakhs, as disclosed in the company’s filing with the Registrar of Companies. This financial boost follows Captain Fresh’s earlier funding round in September, where it raised $20 million, led by Japan-based SBI Investment and Evolvence Capital, valuing the company at $500 million (over Rs. 3,900 crores). Notable investors in previous rounds include Accel, Matrix Partners India, Prosus Ventures, and Tiger Global Management.
Captain Fresh operates on a business-to-business (B2B) model, supplying meat and seafood to sellers in India and various international markets, including the Middle East, Europe, and the US. The company’s CEO, Utham Gowda, highlighted the significant contribution of international markets, which account for over 70% of the company’s revenues and boast higher EBITDA margins (15–20%) compared to the 3% EBITDA margin in India.
In November, reports surfaced about challenges in the online meat industry, with executives grappling with the reopening of physical meat markets and external factors such as inflation, resulting in a slowdown. At that time, the online meat and seafood industry was estimated to be between Rs. 2,500 crores and Rs. 3,000 crores, representing less than 1% of the country’s overall meat and seafood market, a significant portion of which remains unorganized, according to Satish Meena, an independent e-commerce analyst and advisor at Datum Intelligence.