OthersKochi-based agritech startup, Farmers Fresh Zone Pvt Ltd (FarmersFZ) Wednesday said it has raised an undisclosed amount in seed round of funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN) and its maiden VC Fund, IAN Fund, led by Nagaraja Prakasam and PK Gopalakrishnan along with Malabar Angels and Native Lead. The investment will help FarmersFZ strengthen its leadership position in the existing market, bolster its geographical reach in the country and strengthening customer acquisition.
Nagaraja Prakasam, a veteran IAN investor will be taking the board seat. Founded in the year 2015 by software engineer turned entrepreneur, Pradeep PS, FarmersFZ is a multichannel marketplace platform, which bridges the gap between rural farmers and urban customers to provide healthy, premium quality and pesticide-free vegetables and fruits directly from field to the table.
“India is the second-largest producer of Fruits and Vegetables (F&V) in the world after China, and the 300-million-tonne Indian F&V market is estimated at over Rs 4 lakh crore. Moreover, nearly 95 per cent of this is in the unorganised general trade, operating through local vegetable vendors sourcing from traditional mandis and multiple intermediaries. With the right mix of technology and enabling market access, we believe there is potential to transform the value chain of all fresh-produce crops. Through our platform, we are helping the rural farmers turn profitable and directly reach out their customers,” Pradeep PS, CEO at FarmersFZ, said in a statement
Talking about the capital infusion, Prakasam said in the statement, “One of the main reason agriculture is not viable to farmers is inefficient supply chain - merely 30% of what consumer pay goes to farmers. FarmersFZ ‘s unique model encourages farmers to use technology to track and use best practices and rewards them with better prices while consumer gets the complete transparency and traceability, so they know the farmer who is growing their vegetables and fruits, and probably visit them as well thus creating community commerce.”
Currently, FarmersFZ connects more than 350 profitable farmers and 10,000 customers. The startup further aims at increasing the scalability of the business in next 4 years by adding 7 more cities in India, connecting 20 lakhs of customers and 25 thousand of profitable farmers.
Nagaraja Prakasam, a veteran IAN investor will be taking the board seat. Founded in the year 2015 by software engineer turned entrepreneur, Pradeep PS, FarmersFZ is a multichannel marketplace platform, which bridges the gap between rural farmers and urban customers to provide healthy, premium quality and pesticide-free vegetables and fruits directly from field to the table.
“India is the second-largest producer of Fruits and Vegetables (F&V) in the world after China, and the 300-million-tonne Indian F&V market is estimated at over Rs 4 lakh crore. Moreover, nearly 95 per cent of this is in the unorganised general trade, operating through local vegetable vendors sourcing from traditional mandis and multiple intermediaries. With the right mix of technology and enabling market access, we believe there is potential to transform the value chain of all fresh-produce crops. Through our platform, we are helping the rural farmers turn profitable and directly reach out their customers,” Pradeep PS, CEO at FarmersFZ, said in a statement
Talking about the capital infusion, Prakasam said in the statement, “One of the main reason agriculture is not viable to farmers is inefficient supply chain - merely 30% of what consumer pay goes to farmers. FarmersFZ ‘s unique model encourages farmers to use technology to track and use best practices and rewards them with better prices while consumer gets the complete transparency and traceability, so they know the farmer who is growing their vegetables and fruits, and probably visit them as well thus creating community commerce.”
Currently, FarmersFZ connects more than 350 profitable farmers and 10,000 customers. The startup further aims at increasing the scalability of the business in next 4 years by adding 7 more cities in India, connecting 20 lakhs of customers and 25 thousand of profitable farmers.
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