Country Delight raises 108 mn in Series D

Country Delight has raised $108 million in a funding round led by Venturi Partners and Temasek, raising the food-essentials brand’s total financing to $147 million.

The Series D funding had participation from SWC Global and Trifecta Capital. Existing investors, IIFL Asset Management, Elevation Capital, Orios Venture Partners and Matrix Partners also participated in this round.

Founded in 2013, Country Delight offers dairy, fruits and vegetables to the doorstep of consumers. Country Delight said in the last three years it has grown ten times and served over 1.5 million customers.

“Country Delight is on a mission to disrupt the decades-old Indian food essentials space. At Country Delight, we have taken a tech-driven and consumer-centric approach to solving this problem by delivering natural, fresh and minimally processed food essentials, sourced directly from farmers present across the country and deliver to the doorstep of consumers every single day,” said Chakradhar Gade, CEO and Co-founder, and Nitin Kaushal, COO and co-founder, of Country Delight.

India’s fresh food and staples market is expected to cross $50 billion by 2025. Today, over 60% of the fresh foods market is unorganized with limited cold storage capabilities, a fragmented logistics chain, and inadequate visibility of product quality across the supply chain.

Rishika Chandan, Executive Managing Director, Venturi Partners said, “India has about 20 million affluent households across the top 50 cities that could benefit from Country Delight’s range of products, making this a huge opportunity that has remained largely commoditized thus far.”

Chetan Naik, Private Equity Fund Manager, IIFL AMC said, “Country Delight is uniquely positioned to capture the evolving consumer preference towards natural, minimally processed, and healthier food choices. They are the only vertically integrated player with a direct-to-consumer channel, owning the entire farm to fork ecosystem”

Deepak Gaur, Partner, Elevation Capital said, “From Day one, Country Delight has been on a mission to delight Indian consumers with directly sourced fresh products and superlative service standards”

“Temasek and Venturi joining us is an endorsement of the business built and the opportunity ahead. Country Delight is one of those rare companies which have been built largely on positive word of mouth, rather than discount offers. This comes from the founders’ obsession with quality in everything they do,” commented Rehan Yar Khan, Managing Partner, Orios Venture Partners.

Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Country Delight on this transaction.