Amazon has lent its support to NinjaCart, the fresh produce supply chain company, for a potential investment to step in the fresh produce sector. This is an initiative to add different products in the list of the newly created Amazon Pantry.
Amazon signalled its entry into the fresh produce and grocery sector with its add-on of the 'Amazon Pantry' category in the e-commerce application. The company had pushed in Rs 240 crore in the food-only retail business. It also opened up to foreign investments in 2016 after investing about Rs 3495 crore into the food retail sector.
The company expects to contribute more than half of its business to groceries and consumables by the next five years in Asia's third-largest economy.
Amazon showed interest in NinjaCart after it was valued at over Rs 2,448 crore in its last funding round, emerging as a leader in the fresh produce sector.
As per an ET report, NinjaCart is supplying about 25,000 tonnes of fresh vegetables and fruits monthly.
NinjaCart was jointly founded by Nagarajan Kartheeswaran KK, Sharath Loganathan, Ashutosh Vikram, Sachin PJ, and Vasudevan Chinnathambi, spreading in seven cities, raising over Rs 979 crore.
NinjaCart sources its produce from more than 170 villages, local kirana stores and vegetable pushcart vendors. The large produce and the company are backed up by the help investors like Accel Partners US and Accel Partners India, Qualcomm Ventures, Trifecta Capital, NRJN Trust - the investment entity set up by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and wife Rohini, Jo Hirao, the founder of ZiGeXN, and Russian firm HR Capital.
According to Forrester, grocery contributed to about 61% of the overall retail market in 2018. It contributed about Rs 38 lakh crore as its share to the retail market last year.
Companies like BigBasket and Udaan will be the biggest competitors to the startup because of the already created fame in the sector. The progress of the startup depends on the capability of its investors to create and propagate its brand value in the market.
