Farmers Fresh Zone (FarmersFZ), a Kochi-based agri-tech start-up, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from the Indian Angel Network (IAN) and its maiden venture capital fund IAN Fund, Malabar Angels and Native Lead. The investment from IAN was led by its two members Nagaraja Prakasam and PK Gopalakrishnan.

The company will use the funds to strengthen its leadership position, increase geographical reach and strengthening customer acquisition. Prakasam will join the company’s board, FarmersFZ said in a statement.

“India is the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables (F&V) in the world after China, and the 300-million-tonne Indian F&V market is estimated at over ₹4 lakh-crore. Moreover, nearly 95 per cent of this is in the unorganised general trade, operating through local vegetable vendors and sourcing from traditional mandis and multiple intermediaries,” Pradeep PS, Chief Executive Officer at FarmersFZ, said.

“With the right mix of technology and enabling market access, we believe there is potential to transform the value chain of all fresh-produce crops. Through our platform, we are helping the rural farmers turn profitable and directly reach out their customers,” he added.

Founded in 2015 by software-engineer-turned-entrepreneur Pradeep PS, FarmersFZ is a multichannel marketplace.

“One of the main reasons agriculture is not viable to farmers is the inefficient supply chain - merely 30 per cent of what consumer pay goes to farmers. FarmersFZ’s model encourages farmers to use technology to track and use best practices and rewards them with better prices while consumer gets the complete transperency and traceability...,” Prakasam said.

At present, FramersFZ connects more than 350 farmers and 10,000 customers. The start-up further aims at increasing the scalability of the business in next four years by adding more seven more cities, connecting 20 lakh of customers and 25,000 farmers.

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