Produze, a platform for bringing agri producers and international retailers together, has raised $2.6 million in Seed financing led by Accel (the first investors in companies like Facebook, Spotify, Flipkart) with participation from All In Capital, and founder/CEOs of Ninjacart, Sammunati, Fashinza, Drip Capital, CityMall, Stellapps, DhanHQ and other investors.
Produze is a first-of-its-kind platform that enables retailers to procure directly from agri producers in source countries, and have the produce delivered to their stores, enabling quality guarantee, competitive pricing, complete fulfilment and timely delivery.
The startup digitises procurement operations through a wide network of source producers, digitised exporting operations, importing operations and last mile logistics.
“The cross-border supply chain for agri produce today is fragmented with several intermediaries and poorly managed processes, which creates inconsistency in quality, inefficient prices and wastage - leading to a loss in value for retailers and distributors,” said Ben Mathew, Co-founder & CEO, Produze.
“At Produze, we’re enabling seamless commerce between the retailers and agri producers to return this wasted value back to them,” said Ben.
Produze will serve multiple agri produce categories in multiple countries in the Middle East, North America and Europe, serving a $143bn market. The platform is now inviting applications from retailers and distributors on produze.com
“The Middle East has been a big strategic focus for Produze; the UAE for instance is a dynamic and globalised market relying significantly on imports for food needs of an expanding population, where citizens and residents seek premium and uncompromised food quality at competitive prices. Produze is committed to bringing the benefits of technology and source producers access to enable retailers to get consistent quality, better prices and complete just-in-time fulfilment,” said Ben.
"At Accel, we’re excited to partner with the Produze team to help digitize the global agri-trade. We feel Produze technology and supply chain capabilities can help improve selection of fresh farm produce for customers at more affordable prices while compensating the producers fairly," said Pratik Agarwal, Principal, Accel.
"We are very impressed and inspired by the Produze team’s commitment to the cause and their customer-centric approach," said Pratik.
Produze was founded in 2022 by Ben Mathew, Gaurav Agrawal, Rakesh Sasidharan and Emil Soman. Ben and Gaurav were a part of the leadership team at Ninjacart, India’s largest agritech startup, enabling new distribution models, customer growth, profitability and investments. Rakesh and Ben had previously founded a B2C marketplace startup for home-cooked food. Emil, who is the CTO, is a YCombinator alum and was the co-founder at Dockup.
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