F&V supply chain startup Wheelocity, which provides fresh produce to quick commerce companies, on Tuesday said it raised $12 million in a mix of equity and debt in its Series A funding round led by Lightspeed India Partners, , and other investors.
The Gurugram-based startup will use the capital to build new products in farm operations, helping its customer base scale rapidly and drive efficiencies within the F&V supply chain. Over the next six months, Wheelocity aims to hire across roles in product, technology, and operations, among others.
Founded in September 2021, Wheelocity also aims to dramatically reduce/eliminate food wastage through technology-powered supply chains, along with developing technological capacities like IoT-based packing units, AI-based work solutions, and warehouse/logistics automation.
Selvam VMS, Founder and CEO, Wheelocity, said, “India is a fresh-food surplus country. Despite that, while, on one hand, we dump/lose hundreds of thousands of tonnes of F&V every day due to supply chain inefficiencies, on the other hand, studies indicate more than 33 million Indians are undernourished. Clearly, there is a massive problem to be solved by building the rails for fresh produce in India, and we are excited to be backed by Lightspeed and Anicut to solve this at scale.”
With the help of its integrated network of collection centres, fulfilment and distribution centres, last-mile hubs, dark stores, and logistics, Wheelocity delivers fresh produce to clients, including Swiggy Instamart, Ninjacart, Dunzo, and Blinkit, among others, keeping the wastage at a minimum.
In less than a year since its inception, the B2B startup has become operational in 12+ cities, handling close to 700 tonnes of F&V every day with a 350+ member team. Over the next 12 months, the startup wants to expand its reach to over 30 more Indian cities.
Rahul Taneja, Partner at Lightspeed, said,
“Solving the fresh supply chain in India is a very large problem, and in Wheelocity, we saw a mission-driven team, committed to create a meaningful difference for its customers by creating the rails for fresh commerce in the country. We are delighted to partner with the team and excited that their unique approach is being rewarded with increased trust from customers.”
“With the highly efficient and sustainable solutions built by Wheelocity, we believe that they will bridge the existing bottlenecks of fresh commerce in India and revolutionise the entire farm-to-fork supply chain,” said Ashvin Chadha, Managing Partner, Anicut Capital.
