Wheelocity raises $12 mn in funding led by Lightspeed, Anicut Capital

Fruits & vegetables (F&V) supply chain start-up Wheelocity, on Tuesday, raised $12 million in its series A round of funding, a mix of equity and venture debt, led by Lightspeed, Anicut Capital , and other investors.

Selvam VMS, Founder and CEO, Wheelocity, in a statement, said, “India is a fresh-food surplus country - and despite that while on one hand we dump/lose hundreds of thousands of tonnes of F&V every day due to supply chain inefficiencies, on the other hand, studies indicate more than 33 million Indians are undernourished. Clearly, there is a massive problem to be solved by building the rails for fresh produce in India, and we are excited to be backed by Lightspeed & Anicut to solve this at scale.”

Wheelocity aims to use this $12 million fundraise to build new product offerings in farm side operations, help its current customer base to scale rapidly and to drive efficiencies within the F&V Supply Chain.

Rahul Taneja, Partner, Lightspeed, shared, “Solving the fresh supply chain in India is a very large problem and in Wheelocity, we saw a mission-driven team, committed to create a meaningful difference for its customers by creating the rails for fresh commerce in the country.”

Wheelocity, established in September 2021, leverages technology to help fresh commerce companies improve customer experience by delivering unparalleled inventory availability, better quality and reduced wastage in the fresh supply chain, the statement added.

“We are delighted to partner with the team and excited that their unique approach is being rewarded with increased trust from customers. We’re confident that their full-stack approach will enable multiple businesses to scale and grow, across multiple fresh categories and geographies,” said Taneja.

The start-up claims that it has scaled to become one of the country’s leading fresh supply chain networks operational in more than 12 cities, handling close to 700 tonnes of fruits & vegetables every day in less than 12 months since its inception. Over the next six months, Wheelocity aims to bring in new talent across roles in product, technology, and operations, among others. The company is also looking to reduce/eliminate food wastage through technology-powered supply chains over the next few years.

Wheelocity also aims to expand to over 30 cities in the country over the next 12 months and is currently hiring for product, tech, founder’s office, and Operations functions amongst others. The company also plans to develop technological capacities like IoT-based packing units, AI-based work solutions, and warehouse/logistics automation.

Ashvin Chadha, Managing Partner, Anicut Capital, while congratulating Wheelocity, said, “With the highly efficient and sustainable solutions built by Wheelocity, we believe that they will bridge the existing bottlenecks of fresh commerce in India and revolutionize the entire farm-to-fork supply chain. Anicut funding both debt and equity requirements through its multi-asset platform is in line with our belief of providing the maximum value add for this rapidly evolving and growing ecosystem, which will ultimately deliver multifold benefits to farmers and consumers throughout the country.”

Wheelocity - with the help of its integrated network of collection centres, fulfilment and distribution centres, last-mile hubs, dark stores, and logistics - delivers fresh produce to its clients like Swiggy Instamart, Ninjacart, Dunzo, and Blinkit, among others.