Business-to-business (B2B) food processing platform Suite42 has raised $4.3 million (Rs 34.3 crore) in a seed round co-led by Omnivore and Orios Venture Partners on September 6.
The round also saw participation from Titan Capital, All In Capital, Pointone Capital and angel investors, including Sujeet Kumar, co-founder of B2B e-commerce startup Udaan.
Suite42 stated that it plans to use the funds for talent acquisition, startup financing of raw materials and pilot exports.
The startup said that over the next 18 months, it plans to work with a variety of B2B clients, including e-commerce, direct-to-consumer (D2C) and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands as 2,000 modern trade outlets around multiple cities.
Bengaluru-based Suite42, founded in 2022 by Rahul Ratan, Ramakrishna Cheruku, Chethan S and Shriram S, provides contract manufacturing solutions for food processing, serving various B2B clients in the FMCG, agribusiness and grocery industries.
Three of the four co-founders – Ratan, Shriram S and Chethan S – work at Udaan, while the fourth co-founder, Cheruku, works with multinational tech giant Microsoft.
The startup said its B2B food processing platform is grappling with inefficiencies in Indian food processing units, such as low-capacity utilisation, lack of quality standardisation, high waste and limited access to working capital financing.
Omnivore Managing Partner Jinesh Shah said: “The industry is highly chaotic and inefficient. Less than 5% of India’s agricultural output is processed, hindering the profitability of the entire value chain. We are delighted to see Suite42 reinvigorating the food processing sector in India”.
On August 24, Omnivore recently co-led another $3.4 million seed round for insect biotech startup Loopworm with WaterBridge Ventures.
Notably, venture capital firm Omnivore also launched a third fund in April with a target of $130 million to invest in early-stage startups developing technologies for agriculture, food and the rural economy.
Suite42 says its solutions include identifying trusted manufacturing partners, enabling fair price discovery, and reducing food processing costs.
For food processors, Suite42 said it is also aggregating demand, driving better capacity utilisation and facilitating low-cost access to working capital.
Vinit Bhansali, senior vice president at Orios Venture Partners, said: “Suite42 is building a platform to digitise the back end of a food brand from sourcing to packaging. The team is targeting a massive TAM and managing the entire supply chain for the brand.”
