The startup, distributor of fresh products ‘from the field to the table’, recently announced the launch of an Equity Crowdfunding, a formula that will allow its community of consumers and producers become part of the company as investors.
“We are addressing a consumer who is committed to transforming the value chain of the fresh produce sector for the benefit of the planet and the producers”, Explain Luis Puig, CEO and founder of Freshis. “With this collective round, we want a percentage of the business to come from our community so that they feel proud of everything we are going to build in the coming months.”
From its beginnings in Madrid, As of March 2020, the startup has placed more than 18,000 orders, has more than 4,500 customers and has a network of more than 50 national producers. Last April it began its activity also in Barcelona.
Freshis’ business model allows consumers to buy directly from producers and farmers through its website or mobile app, which has achieved more than 1,500 downloads since its launch in June.
Consolidation, innovation and expansion
In its first round of funding, Freshis managed to raise €500,000 the German fund Good Seed Ventures and investors such as Víctor Font (Delta Partners), Ferrán Soriano (Manchester City), Mark Tluszcz (Mangrove Capital Partners) and Sergi Bastardas (Co-CEO and founder of Colvin) among others.
To implement the growth strategy successfully, Freshis has obtained the support of a team of international advisors, among which is Marc Heussinger (ex-CEO of ALDI), Sergi Bastardas (Co-CEO and founder of Colvin) and Víctor Font (Delta Partners).
With this second round, the company seeks to consolidate itself as a reference option for its entire community, present both in Barcelona as in Madrid. The capital raised in this crowdfunding will be invested in consolidating its presence in both cities. It will also be used for the implementation of a technology that allows producers to receive information in real time directly from their final consumers, thus being able to improve sizes and predict quantities or peaks in demand. In this way, the current order management processes with producers and farmers will be simplified and optimized.
In addition, the company has the objective of opening one more new city at the beginning of the year 2023 and expanding its workforce from 14 employees to more than 20, in the first months.
Freshis expects to close the year with a turnover close to one million euros and to double that figure by 2023. According to Pablo Engelmann, COO and Co-founder, “The opportunity is enormous in a market that is growing at more than 5% on a total of more than 65,000 million euros in the five main European countries”.
