Akshayakalpa to invest Rs. 90 cr to set up clusters in TS, AP, Maha
Forays into organic vegetables and fruits by setting up a production cluster near Shamshabad
image for illustrative purpose
Hyderabad: Organic dairy company Akshayakalpa Organic on Tuesday announced its foray into organic vegetable and fruits category. Under the brand ‘Greens’, Akshayakalpa will sell organic spinach, tomato, chilli, and okra along with other essential vegetables and fruits. It is likely to spend around Rs 90 crore to set up three production clusters.
In the next 2-3 years, we will be spending Rs 20-30 crore for establishing a production cluster at Shamshabad in Hyderabad. We have plans to invest similar funds to set up the production clusters in Pune or Mumbai in Maharashtra by next year and very soon around Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh,” Shashi Kumar, CEO & Co-founder, Akshayakalpa Organic, told Bizz Buzz.
“So far, we have two clusters – one at Tiptur in Karnataka and Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu. Today, we have initiated third cluster at Shamshabad here. In each cluster, we work with around 300 farmers. We identify the farmers and groom them. We convert their lands into organic and buy back their farm produce,” he added.
Last July, the company has raised around Rs 117 crore as a part of its Series B funding round led by UK’s development finance institution (DFI) British International Investment, with participation from Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath. Akshayakalpa is now deployiong those funds for the aggressive expansion plans.
With this expansion, the consumers in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai can purchase the fruits and vegetables through delivery options, Akshayakalpa app and website. The organic produce will reach directly to households in Bengaluru and the service will be expanded to Hyderabad and Chennai shortly.
Shashi Kumar further said, “By expanding our product portfolio, we are taking a big step towards our vision of providing consumers with a wholesome and nourishing organic food. We had eventually started our journey with the dairy business, but after our learning’s, we have ventured into several non-dairy products such as batter, bread, honey, coconuts, eggs and banana.”