Former Unilever executives-led food company FairPlum raises $2M led by Unicorn India Ventures

Former Unilever executives Rupesh Agarwal, Mayank Tandon, and Mitesh Thakkar, today announced the launch of a foodtech startup FairPlum to deliver authentic food to consumers without compromising on health and hygiene.

The company also announced it has raised $2 million (approx. Rs 15.2 crore) in funding led by Mumbai-based early-stage focused venture capital firm Unicorn India Ventures. The round also joined the likes of angel investors, including Vivek Sirohi, VP-R&D, Unilever, Amith Agarwal, Co-founder & CEO at Agri-Bazaar, Dinshaw Family Office Anisha Subandh.

Rupesh Agrawal and Mitesh Thakkar are former Unilever executives, who have worked in leadership roles across functions like Finance, procurement, manufacturing, product development, and personal care.

On the other hand, Mayank Tandon is an F&B specialist and entrepreneur who has led, built, and scaled hospitality brands at Reliance Retail, Sanjeev Kapoor Restaurants, Future Group Cloud Kitchens. He has managed a diverse portfolio of building restaurants, large commissaries, cloud kitchens, and food retail, in India and in International markets, the statement said.

FairPlum was founded in 2020 with the ambition to create products & brands which the consumers love, a food company that delivers authentic flavors and food nostalgia to customers' doorsteps in less than an hour.

“Fairplum wants to make foods/brands accessible by bringing authentic foods from across the world at great quality, and value," said Rupesh Agrawal, Founder & CEO, FairPlum.

According to the statement, FairPlum will utilize the raised funding towards marketing, brand building, enhancing people skills, improving organization facilities, and boosting up the working capital.

"Our vision is to run a network of hundreds of cloud kitchens/ physical experience centers on which we will ride our most authentic and iconic foods and their brands from all over the world," Rupesh said.

The foodtech startup is working with the regional/local authentic and heritage food brands of India and taking nostalgic dishes from their kitchen and making it available to consumers sitting anywhere by using food technology, food science, and a supply chain network of cloud kitchens, it said.

Its products are deployed through a phygital model of cloud kitchens, e-commerce, experience centers, and channel sales platform. 

FairPlum said it has partnered with popular food brands and food entrepreneurs from across India to make available authentic food specialties like “Food Karvaan”.

The startup plans to have 100 Cloud Kitchen locations, 1 Physical experience center, 5-10 kiosks within 2022 starting from Delhi-NCR & Mumbai. Currently, It operates in 17 locations and has confirmed 10 more cloud kitchen locations and 1 Physical Experience center in Thane along with Bikanervala which is expected to go live in the next 2 months, it adds.

Speaking on the investment, Anil Joshi, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, said: “FairPlum leverages technology to enhance efficiency and preserve the taste of the food which will be delivered in under an hour. Their ability to adopt the changing trend driven by technology has made the world closer to the consumer."

"Today, the consumer wants what they see and with immediate fulfilment. The food industry is undergoing a significant revolution especially with its creativity, innovation and cutting edge technologies. We saw a strong pipeline of user base and business traction addressing food nostalgia which is why we decided to invest in them further," he adds.

Nitesh Arora, President, Credence Family Office, said, "The sole advisors to the deal, adds, "Today's generation has very specific tastes and would highly appreciate the fact that their favorite food is made available at their doorstep. I believe this could be a very large & scalable opportunity for FairPlum.”

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