Farm produce online retailer Farmers Fresh Zone (FFZ), incubated in Kerala Start-up Mission, has acquired milk delivery platform AM Needs for $2 million (₹15.95 crore) in cash and stock deal.
With this acquisition, FFZ adds country milk and value-added products to its product category . Last September, FFZ got ₹6 crore Pre-Series A funding led by Indian Angel Network (IAN). The company targets ₹1,000 crore revenue in the next five years.
FFZ, which operates in Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Kottayam, and Coimbatore, directly procure products from local farmers within 16 hours of harvest with remunerative prices and taking them to consumers.
Founded in 2019, AM Needs has built a technology stack and platform to ensure the delivery of fresh items to customers before 7 am every day. The delivery platform, which is present in four cities in Kerala, offers products such as milk, vegetables, and breakfast essentials.
Currently, AM needs to collaborate with Milma to sell milk and dairy products. It delivered more than 1.2 million orders last year.
Pradeep PS, Founder and CEO, Farmers Fresh Zone, said the acquisition adds locally sourced pure country milk to their portfolio.
“Using the AI-based app, ‘Captain Farm’, we can ensure food safety and traceability for fresh products. We will also be expanding to more cities,” he noted.
According to Sujith Sudhakaran and Ranjith Balan, co-founders of AM Needs, the collaboration brings tremendous scope for the company, besides ensuring effective service.
Nagaraja Prakasam, Lead Angel investor and Board Member, FFZ, said FFZ pioneered “Know your farmer” and now customers can “know their milk” as well.
Padmaja Ruparel, Co-founder, IAN and Founding Partner, IAN Fund, said consumers are aware of the quality of food and its impact on health. FFZ has created the farm-to-fork supply chain to ensure food safety, and such a benchmark in quality will also be applied to the sale of milk.