Farm-to-retailer platform Produze receives $2.6m in seed funding

Produze, a platform for bringing agri producers and international retailers together, has raised $2.6m in seed financing led by Accel (who were the first investors in Facebook, Spotify and Flipkart), with participation from All In Capital, and founders and CEOs of Ninjacart, Sammunati, Fashinza, Drip Capital, CityMall, Stellapps and DhanHQ, among other investors.

Produze is a first-of-its-kind platform that enables retailers to procure directly from source country agri producers delivered to their stores, enabling quality guarantee, competitive pricing, complete fulfillment and just-in-time delivery.

The startup, which was founded in 2022 by Ben Mathew, Gaurav Agrawal, Rakesh Sasidharan and Emil Soman, digitises procurement operations through a wide network of source producers, digitised exporting operations, importing operations and last mile logistics.

“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 loss in value for the retailers and distributors,” said Ben Mathew, c0-founder and CEO, Produze.

“At Produze, we’re enabling seamless commerce between the retailers and agri producers to return this wasted value back to them,” said Mathew.

Produze will serve multiple agri produce categories in multiple countries in Middle East, North America and Europe, serving a $143bn market.  The platform is now inviting applications for retailers and distributors on produze.com.

“The Middle East has been a big strategic focus for Produze; 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 fulfillment,” said Mathew.

“We’re excited that Accel, All In Capital and other marquee investors strongly resonate with this global problem and will solve this along with us,” he added.

“At Accel, we’re excited to partner with the Produze team to help digitise the global agri-trade. We feel Produze’s 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.