Agritech startup Crofarm raises $1M from Smile Group and others, enters B2B2C biz with Otipy
Summary
Farm to retail agritech startup, Crofarm, said it has raised $1 million in a funding round led by Smile Group, and entered the business-to-business-to-consumer (b2b2c) space with the launch of Otipy, a community-based platform that connects consumers, resellers and farmers. Earlier last year, the startup had received $500,000 from a clutch of HNIs including Vinay Mittal, former Chief of Strategy at HT Media, Ramit Sethi from Strongbox Ventures, and others. A four year old firm, Crofarm has been testing the social commerce model from the past couple of months, and is already serving over 50,000 consumers through a network of more than 500 reseller partners. Varun Khurana, Co-founder and CEO of Crofarm, said that the company is targeting the large market with a broken supply chain but a scalable demand led-model. The 2017 Tech30 startup, Crofarm supplies fruits and vegetables to over 5,000 retailers, which is sourced from farmers across Haryana, UP, Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra.