For 41-year old Atul Kumar, sourcing fruits and vegetables was consistently a test. The Co-founder of Accel-upheld ed-tech startup EduPristine regularly asked why the grocery supply chain was constantly broken.
After cautious though and pondering with his fellow co-founders, Vikas Dosala, Sumit Rai, and Aashish Krishnatre, they understood that the customary mandi framework was ancient, and was offering approach to more up to date models after the abolishment of the APMC act.
This gave rise to Fraazo in 2016 in Powai, Mumbai. The consumer agritech startup is a fresh produce store that furnishes customers with very fresh foodstuffs at their doorstep.
So as to further scale and develop, Fraazo in 2018 transformed into a piece of the retail brand of VnF Ideas Private Limited, one of Mumbai’s driving agritech players giving freshly produced vegetables and organic products to retail purchasers and organizations. In 2019, the group propelled its online store and hyperlocal model in catchment areas across Mumbai and Pune.
The group claims to serve more than 200,000 families in Mumbai and Pune.
The originators are from IIT and IIM alumni networks. Atul is an IIT-Kharagpur and IIM-Indore graduate; Vikas is an IIT-Madras and IIM-Calcutta graduate; Sumit did his BE from the University of Mumbai and has recently worked with Foodpanda, and Aashish is from IIT-Guwahati.
About The Platform
Like any Farm to-fork model, Fraazo has tied up with farmers and producers to get new products, which is then made available to the shoppers. The group has held hands with the VnF system of farmers. it has not revealed the number of Farmers it has tied up with.
In any case, a critical challenge was to get a clear understanding of the nuances that each stock keeping unit (SKU) requires in the vegetables and natural products section post-harvest -above all knowledge about its handling and efficiency. The multifaceted nature of handling different items has been one of the significant learnings for Fraazo.
As indicated by the startup, another test was operational effectiveness, which changes with the growing scale. The boundaries which functioned well for a day by day request of five tons don’t work with regards to dealing with 25 tons per day.
The Daily Operations
The group claims to deal with more than 125 SKUs of new vegetables and organic products. Being a brand centered around farm-fresh produce, it has sorted out its plan of action to suit these requirements.
The Business
Fraazo began with seed funding and later raised $2 million from Equanimity Ventures, Gujarat Venture Finance Limited, and the family office of Manish Choksi of Asian Paints.
The team also ventured into the B2B space through its brand FreshVnF, which has been operational since its inception in May 2018.
As indicated by the originators, the key cost indicators are the expenses of acquiring vegetables and sending labor over the supply chain, which represents 75-80 percent of the expenses. Aside from that, transportation is a significant cost component, and load adjusting across different routes plays a significant role in the unit’s financials.
Dealing with Competitors and the Road ahead.
The group checks practically all driving cloud kitchens in Western India among its esteemed customers, including Swiggy, Box8, and a few free high-end eateries and cafeterias.
Fraazo says the HORECA fragment contributes a noteworthy segment of its deals and is set to develop as the lockdown reduced over the span of the next two quarters.
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