Hyderabad: Farm-to-home digital platform, Deep Rooted.Co, is building an omnichannel presence to expand its market base pan-India. The company, which today operates in Hyderabad and Bengaluru plans to strengthen its presence in south and also build a strong base in western India in the next 1-2 years, Avinash BR, co-founder, Deep Rooted.Co tells Telangana Today in an interview.
Access to market
Our 80 per cent user base is in the direct-to-consumer segment and 20 per cent is in the B2B space. We are partnering with 4-5 delivery companies for last mile connectivity. Our produce is also available on Instamart and we will continue to leverage such platforms in the future. We will tap supermarkets and kiranas across metros and tier 2 cities, going forward. We manage our supply chain end-to-end and stand to gain from our omnichannel strategy. We are ensuring contamination-free produce to our end-users.
Funding so far
Greenhouse agritech startup Clover that operates the platform was founded by me, Arvind M, Gururaj S Rao, and Santhosh Narasipura in 2018. We are funded by Accel, Omnivore, Mayfield and Alteria Capital. We raised $6.6 million cumulatively comprising seed and Series-A rounds. We are evaluating further funding requirements.
Supply chain
Our solutions lie in a demand-backed supply chain for perishables that is focused on quality, consistency and traceability. The company manages a network of peri-urban farms that cultivate this fresh produce. DeepRooted.co supplies its fresh produce to Hyderabad and Bengaluru at present. Our consumer app is available as “Deep Rooted” on the Android and iOS platform. We are meeting the interests of both farmers and consumers to ensure an equitable supply chain.
Handholding farmers
We are currently working with several small-medium landholding farmers. We are positioning ourselves as a platform for all small farmers in the fruits and vegetable space, which is a high frequency segment, by helping them on ground to improve their yield and income. We buy produce from them and supply to supermarkets and consumers. We are converting each farm into a factory. We are working with 90 farmers in Hyderabad and Bengaluru cultivating 120 acres and will be expanding our base.
Learning curve
We began our journey by creating three acres of farm ourselves to understand the practical challenges. We went through a steep learning curve for a year in our own farms, which have become the test beds and means to demonstrate best farm practices. Our business model is asset-light as there are many farmers waiting to get structurally connected to the market.
Natural progression
Deep Rooted.Co while catering to a large base of B2B customers in Bengaluru saw high demand from customers to extend the offerings to Hyderabad, which came as a validation that the model can be replicated in multiple cities. These customers were ready to pick up our stock when we began our harvest in Hyderabad. Seeing the market need, we are now expanding to Pune, Mumbai and Chennai. We will soon look at opportunities in tier-2 and tier-3 markets as internet kitchens are growing, driven by the expansion of hyperlocal supermarkets. We will remain an F&B player and not get into groceries.
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