Captain Fresh raises $3M co-led by Matrix Partners India & Ankur Capital

Bengaluru, March 10, 2021: Captain Fresh, a tech-enabled B2B marketplace that's focused on revolutionizing the seafood supply chain in India, announced today that it has raised $3M in seed capital co-led by Matrix Partners India and Ankur Capital, that led the initial close of the round, along with participation from Incubate Fund. Marquee angel investors such as Jitendra Gupta (Jupiter Money), Amrish Rau (Pine Labs), Asish Mohapatra (OfBusiness) and Revant Bhate (Mosaic Wellness), and ADB Ventures (venture arm of Asian Development Bank) also participated in this round.

Founded in 2019 by Utham Gowda, Captain Fresh is a full-stack marketplaces platform that leverages technology to deliver freshwater fishes and seafood to retailers across all formats, through a trusted seafood supply chain that relies on superior demand-supply matching, standardized supplies, and maintaining digital traceability systems, in order to streamline operations and re-imagine the B2B seafood ecosystem.

Captain Fresh works with multiple brands and retailers in the general trade channel, modern trade channel as well as with the pioneers in the online meat and seafood space. It began operations in Bengaluru, and is currently serving more than 550 retail businesses across all formats; they have also recently expanded geographically with a presence in Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Mangalore and Visakhapatnam.

The Indian seafood market is projected to reach $60B by 2024 with an increase in consumption frequency led by the need for high quality protein and dietary requirements, particularly among the younger population.

With this infusion of capital, Captain Fresh will continue to expand operations and invest deeper in its sourcing and distribution capabilities, building a world-class team and technology investments.

Utham Gowda, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Captain Fresh, comments on securing the new investment, "We are digitally transforming the highly inefficient fresh fish and seafood supply chain in India by aggregating the fragmented retail demand across the country and linking them to the small fishermen and farmers throughout the Indian coast. We have witnessed 10x revenue growth in the last 18 months getting us closer to our USD 1M per month milestone. We are particularly excited by our customers' respect for us combined with the strong capital efficient and scalable business model we have been able to demonstrate in our early markets.'

Krishnan Neelakantan, Partner at Ankur Capital, said, "As a fund that believes that technology will unlock large markets around the next billion Indians, we are excited about the potential for Captain Fresh to transform the supply chain for the USD 30B domestic fresh fish and seafood market. In Utham and his team, we see a great combination of vision, domain insights and passion to champion this change and build a large, valuable company.'

Tarun Davda, Managing Director, Matrix India said, "Captain Fresh is organizing the massive $30B+ seafood supply chain in India with a simple promise - to provide better quality fish at more competitive prices compared to unorganized channels. As a result of their tech-driven approach and focus on reduction in wastage, they have seen rapid adoption across channels '“ from tech-first online brands to the more traditional general-trade retailers. We're thrilled to be partnering with Utham and the team on this journey.'

About Captain Fresh:
Captain Fresh is a farm to retail (B2R) platform for seafood and freshwater fishes. It procures fishes/seafood directly from the agents/farmers, and supplies to GT, MT and online channels providing superior quality fishes at competitive pricing compared to unorganised channels. Further information is available at www.captainfresh.in. You can get in touch with the team at hello@captainfresh.in.

About Matrix Partners India:
Matrix Partners India is an investment firm with approximately $1 billion under management. Founded in 2006, the firm invests in companies targeting the Indian consumer and enterprise market at the seed, early and early growth stages. Matrix India has invested in several market leading companies such as Ola (mobility), Dailyhunt (mobile local language platform), Mswipe (mobile POS), Five Star Business Finance (SME lending), OfBusiness (credit led B2B marketplace), Ola Electric (electric vehicles), Razorpay (payments), Stanza Living (tech enabled student housing platform), OneCard (mobile-first credit card), Country Delight (India's largest direct-to-home food essentials brand), Bijnis (digital B2B marketplace), DealShare (social commerce platform) and Cloudnine Hospitals (leading chain of maternity hospitals) among others. Matrix India has advisory offices in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. Matrix Partners has a global network of funds investing in the US, China and India, with approximately $5 billion under management. Further information is available at www.matrixpartners.in. To know more about our investment philosophy & ideologies, check out the #MatrixMoments podcast series.