Cold Chain Startup Celcius Raises $4.5 Mn To Help Small-Scale Regional Transporters Across India

Mumbai-based cold chain startup Celcius has raised $4.5 Mn as a part of a Series A funding round led by Mumbai Angels. It aims to close the Series A round at $10 Mn in the coming months. 

The round saw participation from investors such as Mumbai Angels, Supply Chain Labs, Endurance Capital, VCats, Keiretsu Forum, Huddle, and EVAN. 

The fresh capital will be used to expand footprint to more than 500 cities and strengthen teams across tech, sales and operations. The startup will further invest funds in the development programme that assists small-scale regional transporters across India.

Founded in 2020 by Swarup Bose, Rajneesh Raman and Arbind Jain, Celcius offers reefer logistics and cold storage warehousing to companies. Through its web and app, it connects shippers and transporters across India. It has partnered with several financial institutions such as Shriram Transport and Finance Company and with OEMs–Ashok Leyland and Tata, among others. 

Celsius has recently launched Vahan Vikas Samriddhi Programme to offer financial assistance to regional transport entrepreneurs and encourage them to enter the cold chain segment.

Celsius claims to have 2500 vehicles and 107 cold storage facilities as of now. It further claims to have operations in more than 150 cities. 

In August 2021, Celsius raised $500K in a seed funding round led by Mumbai Angels Network along with Huddle and Lumis Partners. The round saw participation from investors including MaGEHold, Keiretsu Forum, Eaglewings Ventures Alliance Network (EVAN), among others.

Some of its competitors in the cold chain segment are CloudTrack, TagBox, Tessol, and Coldman Logistics.

In 2018, Mumbai-based cold chain logistics startup Tessol raised an undisclosed amount in a follow-on equity funding round led by early-stage VC platform–1Crowd. The round saw participation from existing investors including Infuse Ventures and Ankur Capital.

Founded in 2013 by Rajat Gupta, Tessol offers services ranging from farm-level collection to home delivery. It has worked with big players in FMCG, ecommerce and food processing sectors.

In 2017, Bengaluru-based cold chain monitoring company TagBox raised an undisclosed sum in an angel funding round from Indian Angel Network and the IAN Fund. The round was led by IAN’s Naveen Gupta and Dinesh Goel.

Founded in 2016 by Adarsh Kumar, Saumitra Singh, and Sameer Singh, TagBox offers sustainable cold chain solutions through automation, IoT and advanced analytics.

According to an Imarc report, the Indian cold chain market has reached INR 1585.1 Bn in 2021. The industry is estimated to reach INR 3637.4 Bn by 2027, achieving a CAGR of 14.72% by 2027.