Fruits And Vegetables D2C Brand Gourmet Garden Raises INR 25 Cr

Fruits and vegetable D2C brand Gourmet Garden has announced its latest round of funding of INR 25 Cr led by Beyond Next Ventures, M Venture Partners, and existing investors Incubate India and Whiteboard Capital among others.

Founded in early 2019, by Arjun Balaji, an erstwhile partner at McKinsey and Company and Vishal Narayanaswamy, Gourmet Garden offers a doorstep delivery service of a  wide range of vegetables and fruits and other curated offerings.

The company plays on ‘zero-contamination’ USP in its farm produce. It has branches in Bangalore as well as Chennai.

With this funding, Gourmet Garden aims to expand their zero contamination farming operations, broaden portfolio with additional categories, boost customer experience by deploying an end-to-end B2C tech-enabled cold-chain, and improve ease of ordering with a mobile app and refreshed website.

“Essentials grown in certified organic farms along with an assortment of imported fruits make up our extended safe F and V range. In addition, we also offer a selection of authentic spices and dry fruits, and will soon be launching wholesome breads and organic sauces and dips for a wider range in fresh,” said Vishal Narayanaswamy, cofounder, Gourmet Garden.

The company claims to have 60,000 customers in Bangalore and Chennai alone with over 75% orders every month coming from repeated customers.

Tsuyoshi Ito, CEO, Beyond Next Ventures said, “We are delighted to see that their sustainable cultivation techniques and quality of succulent vegetables are comparable to those in Japan. The focus on affordable, high quality and safe fruits and vegetables is rising in urban India.”

With 58% of the population dependent on agriculture, India is a largely agrarian economy, and the growth potential of agritech is immense in the country, given this quality.

As per Inc42 Plus analysis, India’s agritech market is estimated to reach $24.1Bn by 2025.  Indian agritech startups received a total funding of $467 Mn between 2014 and 2020. Additionally, according to data from our latest report titled India’s Agritech Market Landscape Report, 2020 ,the sector only had 43 startups in 2013 compared to more than 1,000 startups in 2021 today.

Now, this rapid growth was primarily driven by rise in rural internet penetration, rise in post-harvest and supply chain losses, growing investors’ interest in the sector, lack of finance and high-quality inputs for farmers. The statistical figures mentioned above, as well as the improvements in infrastructure, funding and other components prove the huge market potential for the agritech sector in the future.

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