Pluckk, an Indian fresh produce food-tech startup, has raised $5 million in seed funding from Exponentia Ventures to build its team and technology, adding to its customer base and expanding into key metro areas, The Economic Times reported Wednesday (Jan. 19).
Pluckk’s products and services will become available to customers in the Indian cities of Mumbai and Bangalore, and the company plans to expand to Gurugram, Pune and Hyderabad, according to the report.
Founded last year, Pluckk hopes to be the first eCommerce service in India to meet the burgeoning demand for fresh produce fueled by health and food trends, such as vegan eating, gut health, and alternatives to carbs, the report stated.
In addition to expanding, the company plans to use the capital to acquire Indus Fresh, another player in the fresh fruit and vegetable sector that serves B2B customers like Flipkart and Amazon, as well as business-to-consumer (B2C) clients, according to the report.
“The biggest consumer revolution we are witnessing today is that consumers not only want to enjoy eating but are also increasingly very careful on what they eat,” said Pluckk CEO and Co-Founder Pratik Gupta, per the report. “Pluckk aims to be the brand of choice by providing the widest curated range of such lifestyle-oriented fresh produce. At the core, Pluckk will work with farmers through its bespoke win-win program that focuses on farm practices to ensure residue free and traceable produce.”
Meanwhile, Cholsas, an agriculture B2B eCommerce market from Zimbabwe, hopes to close the gap between various factors of the farming industry.
Read more: Zimbabwe’s AgriTech Startup Cholsas Aims to Connect Farmers, Markets and Suppliers
Cholsas aims to let agricultural merchants and service providers market and supply goods to local farmers. Registered farmers can sell large quantities of their crops to various markets using the same platform.