Our Food, an agritech start-up into innovative, low-cost and decentralised mini food processing units, has raised $6 million.
The funding round was led by existing investor 3Lines Venture Capital and a new investor, C4D Asia Fund. 3Lines India chairman and ex-CEO of Reliance Infrastructure Lalit Jalan will be joining its board, Our Food said on Tuesday.
The company said it plans to ramp up operations, increase manufacturing capacity and improve the agricultural food supply chain that sees an estimated $5 billion annual post-harvest wastage in the country. “This capital infusion will help boost our capacity to over 6,000 operational franchises, gives us the right ammunition to significantly disrupt the food processing industry and position us for an IPO in 2024,” founder and CEO Bala Reddy said.
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Over 1,700 rural entrepreneurs have licenced Our Food’s farmer franchises, each operating a regional crop-specific processing unit that procures and processes raw material from over a hundred farmers from nearby villages. Each franchisee is powered with an end-to-end tech-enabled solution, starting with the establishment of a single mini food processing unit, access to equipment financing, training in processing, and marketing of the processed output, the start-up said in a release.
Our Food has presence in 12 States, but primarily concentrates in AP, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Karnataka. It has processing units for over 15 crops, and plans to expand its crop portfolio.