Fresh Factory, an integrated cold chain fulfillment and enabler startup, secured US$ 4.5 million of seed funding led by East Ventures

Fresh Factory, a cold chain fulfillment startup has secured US$ 4.5 million of seed funding led by East Ventures, with the participation of PT. Saratoga Investama Sedaya TBK, Trihill Capital, Indogen Capital, Prasetya Dwidarma, Number Capital, Y Combinator, and angel investors.

Fresh Factory provides a network of hyperlocal cold chain fulfillment centers, transformation, and a smart fulfillment management system that allows businesses to have their products stored, picked, packed, and delivered to the customers. Fresh Factory ensures better, faster, and more efficient cold chain solutions for its clients and customers. 

“We thank all of the investors for their trust in us. This investment served as a strong testament to the solution provided by Fresh Factory in bringing new innovation to the cold chain management industry in Indonesia. This fund will accelerate our mission of supporting all the business players in Indonesia, especially SMEs in driving growth and scaling their businesses,” said Larry Ridwan, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Fresh Factory. 

Fresh Factory was founded by Larry Ridwan, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Widijastoro Nugroho, Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer, and Andre Septiano, Co-Founder & Chief Financial Officer, who realized that there is a huge problem in the cold chain logistics in Indonesia. It has led to many micro and small businesses struggling to operate and expand their businesses, as well as to the customers that needed to pay an expensive delivery fee. Especially with the rise of e-commerce and online groceries in Indonesia, cold chain infrastructure is gaining more crucial; where Fresh Factory is present as the right solution to the problems and increasing needs of cold chain logistics in the country.

Indonesia is a country that is blessed with abundant resources from its agriculture and aquaculture, which require efficient cold chain logistics to store and later to be delivered from the center of production to the customers. However, there is still a big gap in how the cold chain supply in Indonesia is merely focusing on the central warehouses with no mid and last-mile logistics available. Tapping to this pain point, Fresh Factory serves as the solution by establishing cold storage smart warehouses in various locations in close proximity to the customers.  

Fresh Factory currently has more than 20 warehouses spread across cities in Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Bali, where they provide solutions ranging from frozen to chilled storage. They have also integrated technology solutions into their services, such as GeoTagging and GeoLocation in storing the product in the warehouse, Artificial Intelligence (AI) to forecast and manage stocks in the warehouse, as well as Internet of Things (IoT) to monitor the freezer and chiller temperature. 

Fresh Factory will allocate the fund to further expand the warehouses to all secondary cities in Java, and main cities in Sumatra and Sulawesi. They will also invest in talent and technology to boost adoption and reach operational excellence. Until April 2022, Fresh Factory has reached US$ 10 million of annualized GMV and annualized fulfillment for more than 1 million orders. Moreover, they have recorded a growth of 30% MoM revenue in the last three months. 

“We are elated to have Fresh Factory as part of East Ventures’ portfolios. Seeing the huge gap in cold chain solutions and how it has led to many issues of food loss in the supply chain, we believe Fresh Factory will serve as the solution to improve the cold chain logistics for perishable goods and benefit MSMEs. We are certain Fresh Factory has and will continue to benefit and create more resilient societies,” said Avina Sugiarto, Venture Partner of East Ventures.