Bengaluru-based business-to-business (B2B) cross-border food start-up ONWO (One World) has raised $1.6 million in a seed funding round led by Kae Capital. Whiteboard Capital, 2 am VC, Kettleborough VC, Climber Capital and Point One Capital also joined the round. It witnessed the participation of other angel investors like Mekin Maheswari and Srinivas Anumolu. 

Founded in 2022 by former Flipkart executive Bipul Kumar, ONWO aims to transform India’s food export value chain. In a statement, the company claims to export more than 10,000 metric tonnes of food products, with a repeat rate of over 90 per cent. It has covered over 15 countries with its services. 

ONWO owns a curated marketplace to discover, transact and fulfill orders of processed food products from Indian manufacturers. It is known for offering end-to-end solutions to its customers in a full-stack digital model. The company runs its operations in the markets like US, Canada, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman. 

Speaking on the announcement, Bipul Kumar, Founder and CEO (chief executive officer) of ONWO, said,  "ONWO aims to be at the forefront of reimagining this transition using a digital-first approach in an otherwise traditional industry. ONWO’s full-stack solution eyes to help Indian manufacturers and SMEs access the global markets in a fully managed and asset-light model.”

Gaurav Chaturvedi, the partner at Kae Capital, added, “Our country has the natural advantage when it comes to producing high-quality commodities such as wheat, sugar, etc. and thus exporting it is very lucrative. However, there is a scope for value addition and changing form factors of food exported to ensure better margins for both buyers and sellers. Additionally, global food supply chains are largely offline and unstructured, with lesser transparency on rates and timelines of transaction completion.”

“ONWO is creating a digitised global food supply chain through contract manufacturing and a structured food export segment, allowing Indian manufacturers to ship processed products to the world. Bipul and the ONWO team come with the right experience to build a suitable solution for this large opportunity and we’re very excited to partner with them,”  he added.