The team at FreshWorld is led by Rajiv Rao, a business and operations professional with over two decades of experience in the telecom industry.
Indian Angel Network (IAN) has announced its investment in Freshworld, a startup that has innovatively ventured into a 'Farm to Home' concept by organising Fruits & Vegetables (FnV) retailing. Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-Founder of Infosys also co-invested along with IAN. The investment was led by IAN investor Nagaraja Prakasam, who also joins FreshWorld's board.
Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co- Founder, Infosys, said, "Freshworld is in line with my vision of supporting sustainable technologies in solving problems. I feel this is the next-level disruption in the F&V industry and we expect to see a lot of growth in coming years. I hope to see more 'Green Carts' dotting Bangalore and many more cities soon."
Fruits & Vegetable (FnV) industry in India accounts for an estimated $72 billion which is around 15.3 per cent of the total retail industry. In this, the organized sector is estimated at $26 billion, just 5.5 per cent of overall retail market in India.
Industry sees a potential of growth from current 5.5 per cent to 20 per cent by 2020. The vendors of this industry are largely unorganized and fragmented, face challenges in terms of perishability and bulk wastage, unnecessary middle men involvement and inefficient supply chains that slow down the growth rate of the industry.
On the consumer side the age-old street vending format of FnV has not undergone any change in its delivery mechanism or upgraded to a more refined model of vending. Freshworld has ventured into bridging this huge gap that exists in Customers' FnV purchase in the street vending model by using an eco-friendly Smart Cart delivery mechanism coupled with advanced customer vending features.
The team at FreshWorld is led by Rajiv Rao, a business and operations professional with over two decades of experience in the telecom industry. Rajiv identified an opportunity in the retail Fruits & Vegetables (FnV) business and went about setting up FreshWorld, a mobile network of carts which exclusively retails only fruits and vegetables. With the help of a highly efficient team, Rajiv aims to position FreshWorld as the premier quality 'fresh category retailer'. He says 'We will accomplish this by conceptualizing, developing, growing, and optimizing an innovative and distinctive network of channels that meets the dynamic needs of the value-driven and time-sensitive consumer'.
Nagaraja Prakasam, IAN investor, said, "Freshworld with its innovations disrupting the traditional vegetable supply chain with three stake holders in mind - Farmers, Push cart vendors, Consumers buying at their door step."
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