Currently, more than 1,400 farmers are associated with Farm Taaza to supply over 150 varieties of fruits and vegetables
Kumar Ramachandran, CEO, Farm Taaza
Farm Taaza, a B2B e-commerce platform that sources fresh fruits and vegetables directly from farmers for retails in India, has received US$8 million in Series A funding led by Hong Kong-based Epsilon Venture Partners. Tara India Fund, a fund managed by IL&FS Investment Managers, besides its existing investors also joined the round.
“This funding will enable us to scale the business through deployment of our technology platform for better efficiency. We want to enable a seamless supply chain from farm to store and our next level focus will be to leverage machine learning, AI and data analytics for improved decision making,” Kumar Ramachandran, CEO, Farm Taaza, said.
Also Read: Ninjacart raises US$3M to e-connect farmers and brands to retailers in India
The company was started operations in August 2015 in Bangalore, after raising seed funding from Silicon Valley-based angel investors. Farm Taaza is a B2B e-commerce platform that sources fresh vegetables and fruits directly from farmers for online and offline retailers, traditional kirana stores, hotels, restaurants, corporates, and institutions.
The firm says it makes the produce available to the customer within 8-22 hours of harvesting it. The produce is optimally packed and then transported to Farm Taaza’s warehouses. Farm Taaza also provides expert advice to the farmers on improving the yield and improving the field operations of the farmer.
Currently, more than 1,400 farmers are associated with Farm Taaza to supply over 150 varieties of fruits and vegetables. Farm Taaza has operations in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.
“We believe that the next phase of innovation in the Indian e-commerce segment is in the B2B space. Farm Taaza’s adoption of best-in-class technology platform brings much needed end-to-end efficiency to the critically important $20B annual fresh produce markets, while reducing spoilage and pilferage. The greatest potential comes from the digitisation of its supply chain – automation, data management, collaborative planning and forecasting, smart sourcing and product tracking all of which make Farm Taaza more responsive, agile and transparent,” said Mahesh Vaidya, General Partner, Epsilon Venture Partners.
Other companies operating in the Indian B2B e-commerce space for fruits and vegetables are BharatBazaar, GreenAgTech, and VegFru.
The post Farm Taaza raises US$8M to source fresh produce directly from farmers for retailers in India appeared first on e27.