Half way through 2019, FreshToHome’s cofounders Shan Kadavil and Mathew Joseph decided to expand their D2C fresh meat and seafood brand to the UAE. However, all their projections came to a staggering halt when they realised that cracking the code to the product-market fit in the region would not be as easy as they thought.

Given that FreshToHome was a leader in their category in India, the cofounders got too optimistic that they could achieve the same success in the UAE within a span of just three months. On the contrary, it took more than a year before revenues started pouring in from the region.

Now, almost after three years of cross-border operations, the company has already expanded to all seven emirates in the UAE. The Singapore-headquartered company also saw a two-fold rise in its revenues between CY20 and CY22. It earned a total revenue of INR 600 Cr in CY20, which grew to INR 1,100 Cr in CY22. It is currently running at an annual revenue run rate of INR 1,300 Cr for the month of March 2023.

“Here, the UAE contributes 12% of our total revenues. Including the seven emirates in the UAE and the 150+ cities in India, we are currently operationally profitable at the city level (excluding our overhead costs) by 7%-8%, which is rare in our category,” Kadavil said.

The India numbers reported for the company are quite different though. As Kadavil explains, the company follows a marketplace structure like Flipkart and Amazon. This makes it difficult to portray the correct numbers in India filings, which come down to usually 4% of its total revenue.

Shan Kadavil, CEO and Co-Founder, FreshtoHome

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