Seafood start-up Captain Fresh bags $3 million funding from Matrix, others

Seafood start-up Captain Fresh has raised $3 million in a seed funding round co-led by Matrix Partners India and Ankur Capital.

The funding round was also led by Incubate Fund and angel investors, including Jupiter Money’s Jitendra Gupta and Pine Labs’ Amrish Rau.

Founded in 2019 by Utham Gowda, it supplies fresh water fish and seafood to more than 550 retailers across general and modern trade, as well as to online meat and seafood retailers.

The brand has presence in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Mangaluru and Visakhapatnam.

“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,” shared Gowda by adding that the company has witnessed 10x revenue growth in the last 18 months, taking it closer to the $1 million per month revenue milestone.

Also Read: Captain Fresh bags $2.3 mn funding from Ankur Capital, others

Captain Fresh will utilise the fresh funding to deepen its sourcing and distribution networks, apart from investing in people and technology.

“As a result of their tech-driven approach and focus on reduction in wastage, they have seen rapid adoption across channels,” added Tarun Davda, MD, Matrix Partners India.

The seafood market in India is estimated to grow to $60 billion by 2024, Captain Fresh added, pointing that it wants to become a leading player in this space. It is organising the $30 billion seafood supply chain in India by promising to provide better quality fish at more competitive prices compared to unorganised channels.