Blog

Started as a B2B fresh produce supply chain platform, Freshdo is a startup based out of the Northeastern state of Assam. Sahil Huda, Bhaswar Kaushik, and Debojyoti Dey conceptualised Freshdo after food aggregators Swiggy and Zomato gained popularity.

“In 2019 we started selling organic fresh vegetables offline with a small aim of delivering to the city of Guwahati first. As COVID hit the country, our platform witnessed a huge surge in online orders for vegetables and groceries. That’s when we launched our website Freshdo.in,” says Sahil, Founder, Freshdo.

Freshdo delivers a wide range of products varying from fresh vegetables, fruits, fresh meat, fish, seafood, groceries, and other household essentials.

“While there are other online grocery delivery platforms, we differentiate ourselves by being the only one selling everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to meat and fish and other grocery items all at a single platform,” adds Sahil.

Focus on quality products

“As a startup dealing in delivering fresh food items, it becomes very important for us to ensure quality checks of each product. Keeping that in mind, we make sure that fruits and vegetables are not overstocked and procured from the farmers in real-time. For meat and seafood, we stock up only on an order basis and ensure that everything is packed in a hygienic manner,” explains Sahil.

“As soon as the supply comes in, we have a team that works full time in discarding the inferior quality products,” he adds.

Freshdo clocked over Rs 50 lakh of turnover in the year 2020-21 which is a growth of over 70 percent as compared to the previous year. “The numbers for us are extremely encouraging because we are only a Northeast-based company. We look forward to continuing growing at the same scale,” shares Sahil.

Building a sense of trust with local customers

“When we started we used to take orders via phone or WhatsApp. However, the plan was always to become an online service. Once we had a stable number of returning customers and an increase in organic traffic, we decided to take the business online,” he says.

“We chose a .in extension for the obvious reason that it builds a sense of trust and relatability. And of course, the country name domain makes us believe that we are playing a small part in contributing to the nation,” adds Sahil.

The National Internet Exchange for India (NIXI) is helping many businesses across the country to get a .in or .Bharat domain. Enterprises irrespective of their scale and size can avail a .in domain with the help of NIXI. It is affordable and can be availed in more than 22 languages for businesses coming from all regions of the country.

Sharing his vision for Freshdo, Sahil says, “We are in the pilot phase of launching a 10-minute delivery service. We are all set to become the first Northeastern platform to deliver fresh food items in such a short period. Moreover, we are also planning to expand to other states of the country.”

The ‘Shaping India Inc’s Online Growth’ series chronicles the journeys of startups and SMEs in India and how creating an online presence on the .in or .Bharat domain powered their success stories.