Delhi | 25th August 2020: Otipy, the social commerce venture of farm-to-fork agritech startup Crofarm has raised $1 Mn from Inflection Point Ventures, an early-stage investing platform. The company has already scaled 4X growth in the last three months. It expects the fresh funding to further boost its momentum in Unlock Phase 3.0 as well.
Otipy is India’s first social commerce model to connect consumers with farmers through women resellers. It already has more than 1000 partner resellers (mainly women), catering to over 1,00,000 consumers. It offers an extensive product catalogue of fresh, hygienic and chemical-free on-demand fruits & vegetables from the farm, which is usually 25% cheaper than the market.
Varun Khurana, Co-Founder & CEO, Otipy said, “We are super excited to partner with Inflection Point Ventures at this juncture when our business is showing very high consumer stickiness. We have built a very strong community with our partner resellers (mostly women) and have empowered them by providing an alternate source of income expecially in these times when other sources have dried up. Also, with the recent changes in APMC our farmer network is growing at a very fast pace.
We are delighted to secure funds from Inflection Point Ventures, they have a wealth of experience in consumer startups, guiding them from growth to sustainability. We look forward to benefitting from the same.
Vinay Bansal, Founder & CEO, IPV said, “Otipy is a new concept in India and has gained huge traction so far. Not only does it eliminate the challenge of fair pricing for farmers, but also ensures delivery of fresh produce to end-consumers in a manner that is un-matchable on price and freshness that is enabled by unique and tech-drive supply chain. The company has really performed well since its inception, and it’s certainly going to be a trendsetter in the times to come. We watched the company’s performance closely during lockdown, and more importantly its growth during the un-locking phase, which led to believe in its sustainable value proposition and the vision of transforming the entire farm ecosystem in India.”
Otipy will leverage these funds to augment the existing technology infrastructure, further expand the reseller base in Delhi/NCR and go deeper with its farmer relationships so that consumers can get the freshest produce at the lowest prices. Previously operational in Delhi and Gurgaon, the platform has recently launched its services in Noida, Ghaziabad and Greater Noida, providing fresh produce to end-consumers residing in these regions.
Using AI-based demand prediction tool, the platform collects historical data to procure the produce, facilitates on-demand harvesting and thereby ensures delivery of fresh produce on the same day. It also uses customer relationship management tools on WhatsApp to seamlessly interact and serve consumers while keeping the overall transaction fully transparent at every step. Through the secured funds, the company will strengthen this mechanism and strive to serve customers better.
