How Captain Fresh misread the Indian seafood market

The Tiger Global-backed startup wanted to organize the B2B fish business in India. It’s given up on that now—and there are some valuable lessons in its story.

Late last year, Captain Fresh had an epiphany. 

At a town hall, Utham Gowda, the founder and CEO of the Bengaluru-based seafood startup, shared an interesting snippet. According to two former employees, who requested anonymity, Gowda said the company was using most of its resources in the domestic business while much of the revenue was coming from exports. 

This marks a sea change in the company’s original goal. Captain Fresh started out in 2019 as an online marketplace connecting fish and seafood retailers with fisherfolk and farmers. The idea was to use technology to disrupt India’s large, unorganized seafood industry.  …

Author

Samiksha Goel

Samiksha covered all things startups at The Morning Context. She joined us from The New Indian Express, where she wrote stories on the retail and food sectors. Prior to that, she had covered startups and written various business features in the Deccan Herald.

Writer

samiksha@mailtmc.com

Bengaluru