Agritech startup Otipy raises USD 10.2 mn from investors

PTI, Jul 19, 2021, 11:15 AM IST

New Delhi: Agritech startup Otipy, which markets fresh vegetables, fruits, and other grocery items through its app, has raised USD 10.2 million (around Rs 76 crore) from investors including SIG and Omidyar Network to expand the business.

The Series A funding of USD 10.2 million was led by SIG.

Omidyar Network India, Innoven Capital, and existing investors IPV (Inflection Point Ventures), Pravega, and FactorE also participated in the round, the company said in a statement.

Otipy had earlier raised USD 2 million in 2020, led by IPV.

Launched in 2020, Otipy, which is part of Crofarm Agriproducts Private Limited, is a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) social commerce platform for fresh produce that includes vegetables, fruits, dairy, and other grocery items.

It sources over 2,500 tonnes of fresh produce every month from over 10,000 farmers across the country.

Otipy said its farm-to-fork delivery model optimizes for freshness by procuring directly from farmers and delivering fresh produce to consumers in less than 12 hours.

Varun Khurana Founder & CEO Otipy said ”this new round of funding will support us in our future growth trajectory, adding additional categories on our supply chain making it more efficient and accelerate our mission of making fresh, nutritious food accessible to all.”

”Fresh produce is a 35 per cent-40 percent gross margin category, however, it is the wastage that kills those margins. We are amongst the first companies that have been able to control it via our innovative model,” he added.

Madhav Tandan, Director Investments at Omidyar, said Otipy is building a unique farm-to-table fruit and vegetable brand centered around quality and value.

”Farmers partnering with Otipy earn up to 20 percent more and are paid faster too. Their Community Leader delivery partners are also able to make sizeable additional incomes, in the range of tens of thousands rupees per month,” he said.

Otipy is working closely with more than 5,000 community leaders (mainly women) across Delhi-NCR and is serving over 1,00,000 households with fresh produce at their doorstep.

The company sources fresh fruits and vegetables from farmers across Haryana, UP, Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra.