The seed funding round for Suite42, a B2B food processing firm, raised $4.3 million, co-led by Omnivore and Orios Venture Partners.
Titan Capital, All In Capital, Pointone Capital, and angel investors like Sujeet Kumar (Udaan), also invested in the round. The FMCG, agriculture and grocery industries are provided by Suite42, which offers manufacturing solutions for the food processing sector. Suite42 intends to use the money to hire more employees, start financing for raw materials, and trial exports. The startup intends to collaborate with 2,000 trade outlets spread across cities and B2B clients over the next 18 months.
According to Suite42, there are over 40,000 food processing facilities in India. These facilities are inefficient in many ways, including the poor capacity utilisation, lack of quality standardisation, high levels of waste, and restricted access to working capital finance. Through the identification of manufacturing partners, facilitation of fair pricing discovery, reduction of processing costs, product creation, and standardisation of quality, Suite42’s B2B food processing platform will handle these concerns.
“We are excited to start our journey of potentially redefining the food processing industry in India. Our mission is to empower food manufacturers in India by leveraging technology and building efficient and standardized processes. Consequently, brands and consumers will have access to premium products and ingredients at affordable prices,” said Rahul Ratan, CEO and co-founder of Suite42.
Ratan, Ramakrishna Cheruku, Chethan S., and Shriram S. formed Suite42, a company with headquarters in Bengaluru, in 2022. IIT graduates Ratan and Cheruku have worked for Udaan and Microsoft, respectively. Chethan, a graduate of NIT, has experience working at Hyundai Motors as well as Udaan. IIM Lucknow alumnus Shriram has also collaborated with Udaan.
“The sector is highly unorganized with deep inefficiencies. Less than 5% of India’s agricultural output is processed, preventing realization of profits across the value chains. We are excited to see Suite42 revitalize the food processing space in India,” said the managing partner of Omnivore, Jinesh Shah. “Suite42 is building a platform to digitize the back end of a food brand from procurement to packaging. The team is targeting a massive TAM and manages the entire supply chain for the brand. We are excited to partner with the team in their endeavor to make food processing more efficient,” said senior vice president at Orios Venture Partners, Vinit Bhansali.
