Captain Fresh, a company that has created a one-of-a-kind platform for selling fisheries and aquaculture products, has secured $12 million to further grow its tech-enabled, business-to-business seafood marketplace.
The business, which has raised three rounds of funding in the last eight months, intends to utilize the new funds to continue investing in supply-side technology, expand distribution globally, and invest in its personnel. Its goal is to establish a digital commerce platform that can consistently deliver fair, efficient, and transparent purchases for retailers, addressing the various challenges that plague the fiendishly convoluted seafood supply chain. It now assists in the delivery of around 20 tons of fresh fish per day.
Captain Fresh sells more than 50 different types of fish and shellfish, acquired from both aquaculture and catch fisheries.
Accel Partners led the Series A round, which included existing investors Matrix Partners India, Ankur Capital, and Incubate Fund.
“We have iterated and fine-tuned the playbook for efficiently aggregating demand and supply over the last 24 odd months, which has been verified by a 10X growth spurt during the pandemic.” We are ecstatic to be at this unusual junction of a mostly unsolved problem, a highly capital-efficient company strategy, and a strong investor group. In a news statement, Utham Gowda, founder and CEO of Captain Fresh, said, “We are pleased to have Accel join Matrix, Ankur, Incubate, ADB Ventures, and others on our cap-table.”
“The Indian fresh fish and seafood sector is plagued by a massive supply-demand imbalance, varying quality standards, fragmented channels, and a slew of other challenges. Captain Fresh is focusing on this fragmented supply chain, aggregating it through technology, standardizing quality through scale and technology, and serving merchants by providing higher-quality items, a higher fill rate, and a faster turnaround time”, said Barath Shankar Subramanian, partner at Accel.
“Captain Fresh aspires to disrupt the $400 billion global fresh fish and seafood sector by building a tech-enabled B2B supply chain that can deliver superior quality at competitive costs with an emphasis on waste reduction,” said Sudipto Sannigrahi, vice president of Matrix India. We believe the company is well positioned to scale successfully over the next 12 months, given its rapid growth.