Eggoz, an India-based agri-consumer tech startup, has on Wednesday announced that it has raised $8.8 million in a series B funding round led by Mumbai-based IvyCap Ventures Pvt Ltd.
The round also saw participation from the existing investors NABVENTURES, Avaana Capital, and Rebright Partners, Eggoz said in a statement.
Other angel investors such as Vishesh Khurana (Co-Founder of Shiprocket), Ankit Mehrotra, Sahil Jain, Nikhil Bakshi, Vivek Kapoor (Founders of dineout), Khalid Qazi (Vice President of Swiggy), also participated in the round.
Sprout Capital worked as an investment banker for the transaction.
According to the statement, the fresh capital will be used to expand its business footprint while bringing on additional talent and growing its community.
“With this funding, we plan to take Eggoz to more geographies and have a larger impact on the lives of both farmers and consumers,” said Abhishek Negi, Co-Founder of Eggoz.
Currently, Eggoz products are available in Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, and other non-metro cities; where the company’s unique hub and spoke business model ensures 1-day freshness and better eggs.
Negi believes that tech-first and farmer-integrated food supply chains are going to be the future of food and farming.
“Consumers of today are educated about food safety and concerned about the source of their food. Eggs are a core part of Indians’ diet. It is nature’s super food and a reliable source of protein and all the important nutrients,” he said.
However, he noted that the current state of eggs in India needs to improve, where this category has been under-penetrated in terms of bad hygiene practices, no quality standardization, and untraceable value chain.
“We believe eggs can contribute immensely to solving India’s malnutrition problem, and the supply chain must be solved to ensure eggs can deliver on their promises,” he added.
Founded in Bihar with a poultry farm in 2017 by IIT Kharagpur alumni: Abhishek Negi, Aditya Singh and Uttam Kumar, Eggoz is an indigenous brand that focuses on bringing high-quality, chemical and antibiotic-free, farm-fresh eggs from local farmers straight to consumer tables.
The firm has built an asset-light farmer integration model that delivers better nutrition and standardized quality of eggs to masses at scale.
Today, as a branded eggs company, Eggoz brings 1-day fresh eggs to consumers via omnichannel, sourced directly from farmers who work under a fully integrated model.
All Eggoz products are produced with herbal hen feed, tech-based monitoring for birds, and regular veterinarian care.
With technology at the core, Eggoz platform ensures the processing of millions of eggs across different regions with an aim to build India into a protein-positive country and build the “Amul of eggs”.
“Eggs being a major source of protein and a dietary staple for a huge section of India’s 1.4 billion population, the market potential is tremendous,” said Vikram Gupta, Founder and Managing Partner, IvyCap Ventures Advisors Pvt Ltd.
“Eggoz, with its unique model, has the potential to capture this market and become the leader in this segment,
“We are excited about this investment and look forward to helping them scale to be the largest player in this segment,” he added.
Eggoz is building a brand in a $12 billion egg consumption market that is growing exponentially with packaged penetration of less than 3 percent (97 percent of total eggs produced are still consumed in an unpackaged format).
Eggoz, with its tech-first approach and supply chain, caters to the growing demand of the country and provides higher income for farmers.
Eggoz has grown by more than five times in 12 months with continued brand love and support by consumers.
“NABVENTURES will continue its partnership with Eggoz to make India protein positive,” said Rajesh Ranjan, Chief Executive Officer of NABVENTURES Limited.
“India’s protein consumption is significantly lower than WHO-recommended levels, and eggs are the cheapest source of protein,
“We believe Eggoz will replicate for eggs, what Amul has done for milk in India,” he added.
Avaana Capital Investment Director Shruti Srivastava said :” As India continues on its trajectory of consumption upgrade, we have seen brands being built on quality assurance across multiple food categories- aata, rice, dairy, oil.”
“Eggoz is well-positioned to build a large brand in the eggs category leveraging its business model that can ensure high quality nutrition for the average Indian on one hand while helping the farmers operate more efficiently on the other,
“We are excited to continue supporting Eggoz on their journey to create India’s largest, most loved egg brand,” she added.