[Funding alert] Otipy raises $1M from Inflection Point Ventures

Otipy, the social commerce venture of farm-to-fork agritech startup Crofarm, has raised $1 million from Inflection Point Ventures (IPV), an early-stage investing platform.

According to a statement from the startup, it has scaled 4x growth in the last three months and expects the fresh funding to further boost its momentum as the country emerges from the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

Otipy connects consumers with the farmers through women resellers. This venture claims that it has more than 1,000 partner resellers catering to over 100,000 consumers.

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Otipy says the fruits and vegetables available on the social commerce platform are sourced from the farm, and are chemical-free and hygienic.

On the funding, Otipy Co-founder and CEO Varun Khurana said, “We have built a very strong community with our partner resellers (mostly women) and have empowered them by providing an alternate source of income especially in these times when other sources have dried up. Also, with the recent changes in APMC our farmer network is growing at a very fast pace. “

According to Otipy, it will use the fresh funding to augment the existing technology infrastructure, further expand the reseller base in Delhi/NCR, and build deeper relationships with the farmer ecosystem. It had earlier raised $1 million from Smile Group.

Otipy has presence in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad, and Greater Noida.

On the investment into Otipy, IPV Founder and CEO Vinay Bansal said, “Otipy is a new concept in India and has gained huge traction so far. Not only does it eliminate the challenge of fair pricing for farmers, but also ensures delivery of fresh produce to end-consumers.”

This is the 12th investment by IPV since March this year.

Otipy uses AI-based demand prediction tool to collect historical data to procure the produce, facilitates on-demand harvesting and thereby ensures delivery of fresh produce on the same day. It also uses customer relationship management tools on WhatsApp to interact with the consumers.