FoodTech Startup Pluckk Appoints Mamaearth’s Market Place Head- Kunwarjeet Grover as Head of Growth

Pluckk, a leading food-tech-direct to consumer company, focussed on farm to fork fresh produce, today announced the appointment of Mr. Kunwarjeet Grover as Head of Growth. Mr. Grover will be based in Bangalore and will report directly to Mr. Pratik Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder of Pluckk. In his new role, he will be responsible to drive revenue across online and offline channels, lead sales and growth teams.

Mr. Grover joins PLUCKK from the fast growing direct-to-consumer company Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd (parent company of Mamaearth) where he was responsible for building and leading the P/L of marketplace business for brands like Mamearth, The Derma Co. & Bblunt. Prior to Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd he was also associated with renowned companies such as Himalaya Herbal Healthcare, CavinKare, Phillips Lightning, and Havells India Ltd. With over 12 years of experience he specializes in P/L management, Business Development, Online Vendor Management, and Business Planning/Implementation. He holds an MBA degree from IBS Hyderabad.

Commenting on the appointment, Mr. Pratik Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder, Pluckk, said, “We welcome Kunwarjeet to the Pluckk family. Kunwarjeet’s deep understanding of D2C and FMCG is something that Pluckk will immensely benefit from. His experience will enable us to sharpen our product portfolio and distribution into online and offline channels including ecommerce, modern trade and general trade in the fresh category. His addition to the core team will help us double down on revenue and profitability across Pluckk’s online & offline presence”.

Speaking on the occasion, Kunwarjeet Grover said, "I am honoured and excited to join Pluckk as Head of Growth. The fresh produce industry is the fastest growing and largest penetrated category. Pluckk is an emerging leader and with the right value proposition we aim to create an industry first story in the fresh food tech category. I look forward to working closely with the talented teams at Pluckk and leveraging innovative strategies to drive remarkable outcomes and propel the company to new heights”.

About Pluckk

Pluckk is a B2C fresh produce food tech platform founded in July 2021. Co-founded by Pratik Gupta and seed-funded by Exponentia Ventures (EV) with current operations in Mumbai, Bengaluru & Delhi. It is the first of its kind digital lifestyle-oriented fresh food brand in Fruits and Vegetables (F&V) space. Pluckk provides a platform to facilitate the ‘farm-to-table’ concept. It offers a large variety of 300+ special selections of gourmet fruits, vegetables & meal kits directly to end consumers, doing away with mediators. The platform has already on boarded 1000 plus farmers across Mumbai, Bengaluru & Delhi & is now available on platform such as Amazon, Swiggy, Dunzo & Zepto.

FoodTech Start-Up Pluckk Acquires Meal Kit Brand KOOK for $1.3 Mn Value of Cash and Equity Combined

Deal valued at $ 1.3 Mn

To enter the booming $15 billion global meal kit market

Pluckk, a first-of-its-kind digital lifestyle-oriented fresh food brand in the Fruits and Vegetables (F&V) space, has announced the acquisition of KOOK, an Indian food-tech startup that offers a range of DIY Meal Kits for consumers, at a deal value of $ 1.3 Mn through a combination of cash and equity.

KOOK offers DIY Meal Kits that make cooking easier for everyone by providing pre-portioned ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes. With a reputation for catering to various dietary preferences and cooking skills, KOOK has a strong presence in Delhi and Mumbai.

Pluckk's acquisition of KOOK is a strategic move to tap into the enormous growth potential of the meal kit market and presents significant opportunities for Pluckk. The global market is projected to grow from 15.21 USD Billion in 2021 to 31.5 USD Billion by 2025 , representing a 20% CAGR. With KOOK's strong target audience and expertise in meal kits, Pluckk is well-positioned to deliver the best quality fresh food to its end consumers in this thriving $15 billion market.

Speaking on the acquisition, Nelson D’Souza, CFO, Pluckk, said, "We are thrilled to welcome the young team of KOOK to the Pluckk family. Their demonstrated expertise in building a world-class product in the meal-kit space, coupled with our commitment to provide safe and chemical-free produce, will enable us to offer an unbeatable farm-to-fork experience to customers across India. In the post-covid world, Ready to Cook Meal Kits have emerged as a sought after cooking trend with customers preferring to control the quality of food consumed while having more dining options which we look to leverage by offering this differentiator to our customer experience. Further, from a unit economics point-of-view, this is a welcome addition to our portfolio and will help us accelerate our journey towards building a profitable business."

KOOK, Co-Founder, Arpitta Jerath said, "We are thrilled to be joining forces with Pluckk and becoming a part of their innovative fresh food ecosystem. The synergies between what we are building at KOOK and the lifestyle first approach that Pluckk brings to the Fruits & Vegetables category seems very compelling. Our range of DIY Meal Kits, combined with Pluckk's digital lifestyle-oriented brand, will allow us to offer even more convenience and healthy meal options to the discerning customers in the ever-growing markets Pluckk operates in."

KOOK, Co-Founder, Nikhil Thatai said, "At KOOK, we are committed to making cooking easy and convenient for our customers and we are excited to bring our range of DIY Meal Kits to even more people through our synergies with Pluckk. We estimate the market size of meal kits to be around 1B USD by 2025 in India and we look forward to leveraging our expertise in meal kit delivery to offer healthy and delicious meal options to cater to this booming market in our country."

Pluckk offers a farm-to-fork product line for health-conscious consumers, featuring safe and chemical-free produce through their ozone wash and traceability program. Customers can shop based on food trends such as gut health, heart health, and diabetes, and access a wide range of products beyond the basics, including organic and exotic produce. Pluckk's products are available on their own D2C platform and partner platforms like Blinkit, Swiggy, Zepto, Dunzo, and Amazon.

About Pluckk

Pluckk is a B2C fresh produce food tech supply chain platform founded in July 2021. Co-founded by Pratik Gupta and seed-funded by Exponentia Ventures (EV) with current operations in Bangalore & Mumbai. It is the first of its kind digital lifestyle-oriented fresh food brand in Fruits and Vegetables (F&V) space. Pluckk provides a platform to facilitate the ‘farm-to-table’ concept. It offers a large variety of special selections of gourmet fruits and vegetables directly to end consumers, doing away with mediators. The platform has already on boarded 500 plus farmers across Mumbai and Bengaluru and plans to reach the 1,000 mark in the next 6 months. 

About KOOK

KOOK is a DIY Meal Kit Startup founded by ISB Alumni Nikhil and Arpitta in 2020. With presence across Delhi & Mumbai, KOOK was started with a mission to make at home cooking hassle free and easy. KOOK aims to make the task of cooking wholesome good quality meals less daunting with ready to cook kits that come with semi prepped and pre-portioned ingredients that are freshly sourced, hygienically packed and have ZERO preservatives. KOOK Meal kits enable people to make a perfect meal from start to finish at home in under 20 minutes.

FoodTech Venture Pluckk Becomes India’s 1st Certified ‘Plastic Neutral Brand’ in Fruits & Vegetable (FnV) Space

Resolves to collect 6,000 kgs of plastic waste from getting into landfills & oceans

Pluckk - an environment friendly food-tech venture today announced being certified as a Plastic Neutral Brand. Pluckk which is one of the fastest growing D2C brands in the Fruits & Vegetables (FnV) category, will now recycle more plastic than it consumes thereby becoming the first Indian company in FnV space to receive this certification.

This commitment towards being plastic positive – is endorsed by ReCircle, which is a resource recovery enterprise working towards a sustainable future, preventing resources from entering landfills and ocean by recycling, repurposing and reusing and directing them back into the economy with a vision of ethical circularity.

Commenting on the certification Pratik Gupta, CEO, Pluckk said, “Of the seven billion tonnes of plastic waste that is generated globally, only 10% gets recycled. This leaves a huge scope for companies to act responsibly and work towards bridging that gap. We at Pluckk are delighted to be the 1st F&V brand to be certified as “Plastic Neutral”. With this move, we aim to recycle much more plastic than we consume for our daily packaging. We are keenly aware of the plastic distributed with orders and want to adopt a 360-degree plan to reduce our plastic consumption in our endeavour to protect the environment.”

“ReCircle is happy to announce that Pluckk, a nature-conscious brand has joined our fight against plastic waste, and they will help us to divert it from going into landfills and oceans. So let’s collaborate and ‘Pluckk’ out waste from nature,” said Rahul Nainani, Co-founder and CEO, ReCircle.

Pluckk’s Plastic-Return initiative, also allows customers to return the plastic packaging of their orders during the delivery of their next order. Furthermore, customers in Mumbai can also organise pick-ups of plastic waste using ReCircle’s Plastic Collection facilities.

Taking this association with ReCircle one step further, Pluckk aims to collect 6000 kgs of plastic waste from getting into landfills, oceans & dumping grounds. The company is also looking at more innovative solutions to go plastic-free.

Being one of the fastest growing D2C brands in the Fruits & Vegetables (FnV) category with a wide range of 250+ products of essentials, exotics and pan ready meal kits, Pluckk becomes the first Indian company in the Fruits & Vegetables (FnV) space to receive this certification.

The Pluckk app recently crossed over 100K customers with a strong network of 1000+ farmers. It provides customers with highest quality - safe, hygienic, ozone washed, traceable, ethically grown farm to fork fresh food options in formats which address their lifestyle needs.

About Pluckk

Pluckk is a B2C fresh produce food tech supply chain platform founded in July 2021. Co-founded by Pratik Gupta and seed-funded by Exponentia Ventures (EV) with current operations in Bangalore & Mumbai. It is the first of its kind digital lifestyle-oriented fresh food brand in Fruits and Vegetables (F&V) space. Pluckk provides a platform to facilitate the ‘farm-to-table’ concept. It offers a large variety of special selections of gourmet fruits and vegetables directly to end consumers, doing away with mediators. The platform has already on boarded 1000 plus farmers across Mumbai and Bengaluru.

FoodTech Venture Pluckk Records ~$5 Mn Annualised Revenue Run Rate in October 2022

• Crossed 100k customers since the launch in January 2022
• Work with 1000+ farmers directly to sources fresh veggies and fruits
• Fruits & vegetables are ozone washed and sourced responsibly with full traceability
• Forged alliances with biggies like Amazon, Dunzo, Reliance Signature et al

Pluckk, a fresh produce food-tech venture owned by Fruveggie Tech Pvt Ltd. has clocked record revenues of USD 5mn in a short span of time since its launch in January 2022, making it one of the fastest growing D2C brands in the Fruits & Vegetables (FnV) category. The revenue growth was driven by the launch of the PLUCKK app in April which contributed to its stellar growth with 100k downloads in just 3 months.

The company also announced its expansion in Delhi NCR, where the pilot has already started in Gurugram and future plans include expansion in Pune and Hyderabad by end of FY 23-24.

Tie-ups with major ecommerce platforms like Amazon, Dunzo and Swiggy, Zepto and Reliance signature stores have been a major driving factor to the growth of this young start-up.

Pluckk has currently crossed over 100K customers, works with a network of 1000+ farmers & offers a range of 250+ products of essentials, exotics and pan ready meal kits. The company has plans to raise funding in the next 12 to 18 months and enter into newer geographies.

Mr. Pratik Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder of Pluckk says “The urban Indian upwardly mobile consumer today looks at health & lifestyle benefits in everything they consume. Around one third of the online fresh produce market is going to be driven by lifestyle oriented brands in the next 5 years. We at Pluckk identified this fast growing unaddressed white space and aim to provide customers with highest quality fresh food options in formats which will complement their lifestyle needs. We are extremely delighted to witness the successful response we have received by growing from USD 1m to 5m in just around nine months of our operations”.

The main differentiator of Pluckk is providing customers with highest quality - safe, hygienic, ozone washed, traceable, ethically grown farm to fork fresh food options in formats which solve for lifestyle needs.

The company which recently raised USD 5 million seed capital funding from Exponentia Ventures has put this capital to good use by positioning itself as a one-stop differentiated brand in the F&V space.

Pluckk’s proposition is centered on global food trends ranging from vegan, carb alternatives, gut health, immunity to plant-forward eating to prevent diabetes and mental health. The platform offers new and unique categories making it a one stop most reliable destination for FnV including meal kits, low carb meal replacements, cuts, salads, hydroponic, organic, stuffed etc.

About Pluckk

Pluckk is a B2C fresh produce food tech supply chain platform founded in July 2021. Co-founded by Pratik Gupta and seed-funded by Exponentia Ventures (EV) with current operations in Bangalore & Mumbai. It is the first of its kind digital lifestyle-oriented fresh food brand in Fruits and Vegetables (F&V) space. Pluckk provides a platform to facilitate the ‘farm-to-table’ concept. It offers a large variety of special selections of gourmet fruits and vegetables directly to end consumers, doing away with mediators. The platform has already on boarded 100 plus farmers across Mumbai and Bengaluru and plans to reach the 1,000 mark by March 2022.

Pluckk CEO and Co-founder Pratik is an IMT Ghaziabad alumnus and has previously built a leading online grocery venture Wadi.com, which was later acquired by MAF (Carrefour).