SBI Investment, Evolvence co-lead $20 mn round in Captain Fresh

By Aman Rawat

  • 05 Sep 2023
Credit: 123RF.com

Business-to-business fish and seafood company Captain Fresh has raised $20 million (around Rs 166 crore) in an extended Series C funding round co-led by SBI Investment and Evolvence Capital. 

A few of the existing investors of the company, including Accel, Matrix Partners India, Prosus Ventures and Tiger Global, also participated in the funding mop-up. 

Captain Fresh, which is owned and operated by Infifresh Foods Pvt Ltd, also counts Ankur Capital and Incubate Fund as its investors. 

The company will use the fresh funds to expand its global operations, with a particular focus on Europe and the US markets. 

Prior to this, Captain Fresh raised $50 million (around Rs 382 crore) in its Series C funding round in 2022 at a valuation of $500 million. To date, the company has raised over $110 million across multiple funding rounds. 

Captain Fresh began as a seafood marketplace in 2019 by Utham Gowda. The farm-to-retail platform aggregates the fragmented retail demand across the country and links it to the small fishermen and farmers throughout the Indian coast.  

Captain Fresh offers a diverse selection of fish and seafood, serving customers across 30 countries globally. It has offices in India, the United States, Dubai, and Madrid, and is now expanding into other European markets. It has also roped in Basola Valles as the chief executive officer (CEO) for the European market from Salesforce. 

At present, the company has a distribution presence in over 20 cities and has partnerships with more than 2,500 retail establishments. 

In the financial year 2022, the company had recorded Rs 207.6 crore in revenue from its operations, growing more than 6x from Rs 33.1 crore income in FY22. On the other hand, its net loss jumped 11x to Rs 105.7 crore in FY22 from Rs 9.1 crore in the fiscal before. The company is yet to file its financials for the financial year 2023 with the Registrar of Companies, the last day for which is 30 September.