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Agritech startup Nutrifresh has raised $5 Mn in its Pre-Series seed funding round led by Archer Investment, Florintree and Green Frontier Capital. The round was an equity funding round.

The fund raising also saw participation from Sky Kurtz from Pure Harvest UAE, Dr Soumitra Dutta from the University of Oxford, Shaishav Dharia from Lodha Group, Karan Goshar from Samarthya Investment. 

The funds will be used to scale Nutrifresh’s operations and research and development, as well as expand its footprint. The startup will also deploy funds for brand building and bolstering its tech platform.

Sanket Mehta, cofounder, Nutrifresh Farm Tech Farms, said, “With these funds, Nutrifresh aims to enhance the production capacities and bring in standardization in the production process thus, scaling the farms with requisite SOPs to gain a higher competitive edge. Nutrifresh wants to establish itself as a household brand.”

Founded in 2019 by Sanket Mehta and Ganesh Nikam, the Pune-based startup uses the hydroponic method to produce fruits and vegetables. It sells fresh produce to other organisations as well as consumers via its website and mobile-based app. It claims to deliver products to customers within 24 hours of harvest.

With the implementation of centralised nutrient and pumping systems and a close-looped irrigation methodology, Nutrifresh claims to use 90% less water than a conventional farm. 

The startup shares that women account for over 80% of its farm workforce. Further it aims to skill these women with modern techniques and simultaneously, achieve complete self-sustenance.  

According to Nutrifresh, it produces over 42 SKUs including bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, zucchinis, spinach, fenugreek, among others. The products have been certified from ISO, FSSAI, HACCP and GLOBAL GAP, as claimed by the startup.

Nutrifresh claims to supply its products to more than 100 B2B aggregators including Nature’s Basket, BigBasket, Swiggy, KissanKonnect and Zomato’s Hyperpure, among others. 

In the agritech sector, Nutrifresh faces competition from the likes of Fyllo, Poshn, DeHaat, Absolute, and Eeki Foods. 

India’s Thriving Agritech Sector 

As per an Inc42 report, India’s agritech sector was anticipated to be worth $24 Bn in 2020. Of this, the sector’s tapped market size was merely $204 Mn. 

The agritech sector has seen a slew of fundraising activities recently. In May, agritech startup Absolute secured $100 Mn from Sequoia Capital India, Alpha Wave Global (AWI) and Tiger Global at a valuation of $500 Mn. 

In April, Eeki Foods raised $6.5 Mn from General Catalyst, Avaana Capital and Better Capital while Poshn bagged INR 28.8 Cr ($3.7 Mn) from Prime Venture Partners and Zephyr Peacock. Besides, agritech startup DeHaat acquired a 75.5% stake in food startup YCook.