FreshToHome, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) meat delivery startup, has raised $104 million in its Series D round led by Amazon Smbhav, CEO and co-founder, Shan Kadavil, told FE. The round also saw participation from E20 Investment, Mount Judi Ventures and Dallah Albaraka, along with existing investors like Investcorp and others.
Kadavil did not disclose the valuation at which the money was raised, but industry players pegged it at around $800-850 million, up from $600 million. FTH has raised around $232 million so far and competes with Temasek-backed Licious, a unicorn that has raised $490 million and is valued at $1.47 billion. “We didn’t really see resistance from a funding winter standpoint, but of course, it was harder than 2019 when we last raised funds,” Kadavil said.
The fresh funds will be used to increase FTH’s presence in 160 cities, of which 100 cities the company entered recently. The company will also expand its international footprint to Saudi Arabia, after tasting success in the United Arab Emirates. Kadavil said FTH will also work heavily on furthering its omnichannel approach.
The startup currently has 30 stores and will open about 100 more in 12 months from now, which will help bring down the customer acquisition cost (CAC) by 50%.FTH has about 2,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) but fish, the company’s main product, brings about 46% of the total revenues. Poultry products come next.
The company estimates that the domestic meat market is around $750 million in size and new-age players like Swiggy, Licious, Big Basket — all put together – were not even 1% of that.