Re-imagining India’s food supply chain
India is the second largest food producing nation in the world and yet houses a quarter of the worlds under nourished. For developed nations, food loss occurs due to high quality standards at both the consumption and farm levels. However, developing nations see massive food losses in supply chain due to poor infrastructure. With increased production comes more proportional increase in losses. 28% of the food that is produced gets wasted before it reaches our plates and that number goes up to 52% for perishables.
WayCool’s tech enabled food distribution network and effective sourcing reduces this food wastage. With the ability to process over 250 tonnes of product per day with less than 1% food wastage, they have built a network of 35,000 farmers. The end to end supply chain capability to optimize logistics, track fulfilment rates and share live dashboards builds a transparent and efficient supply chain. The success of their model depends on their ability to work closely with the farmers enabling them to reduce cost, increase yield and revenue thereby increasing farmer livelihood.
We look forward to working with them and building a long term sustainable business.
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“We are committed to building a lean, efficient and profitable enterprise that makes that makes social impact an integral part of its operations” said Karthik Jayaraman, CEO and Co-founder.
"To deliver impact and build a sustainable business, we need to go beyond just buying from farmers by partnering with them in the farming process".
Uber, the popular Bangalore based cap operator was asked to change its payment mechanism by the Reserve Bank of India. Popular ecommerce sites like Myntra, Urban Ladder, Flipkart, and many other have been under the scanner for various regulatory matters like FDI violation, VAT related issues, Enforcement Directorate probes for maters before April 2013, Payment mechanism violations etc. With each passing day new violations or potential violations seem to be added.
It’s not the size of the Indian market but the immensity of the aspiration across income levels that businesses need to take into account. Products that deliver aspiration at value bargains is where the game gets exciting.
As the initial euphoria of the Walmart-Flipkart announcement settles down, it’s time to start making Flipkart a better and stronger company for shareholders and consumers. India is a complicated market, and acquisitions here are always challenging. Walmart’s next steps will be critical as it looks to create a blueprint for success in India.
More than pure play consumer startups, Lightbox looks to invest in ones that use technology effectively in their business models to transform their industries.
Food is the only consumer product, where small, local brands have power. We don’t say “the guy at the end of the street makes the best computers". But we routinely say “that Mexican hole-in-the-wall place makes the best tacos ever”. Food is the most differentiated, most personal, most emotional of everything out there (barring your life partner).
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