B2B agri marketing firm Ninjacart wants to sell to consumers directly

Business-to-business agri marketing platform Ninjacart is looking to diversify its offerings by adding a chain of business-to-customer outlets for fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Accel Partners-backed company piloted this initiative earlier this year in Bengaluru by launching a mix of company-owned and franchise stores, four of which have already broken even, chief executive Thirukumaran Nagarajan said.

“We want to standardise the stores that sell fresh fruits and vegetables which can come together under our single brand. In this format of stores, Ninjacart provides technological support like inventory prediction, cash management, customer management, etc,” said Nagarajan.

The company expects to have 2,000-3,000 stores across Karnataka in two years. “Around 20% of this will be new stores and the remaining will be us equipping the existing stores with technology support and standardising it.”

The Bengaluru-based company, which started as a hyperlocal grocery delivery service in May 2015, changed to a business-to-business marketplace model, providing transparency of pricing to farmers and building a supply chain for fresh produce to be sold to restaurants, supermarkets, and grocery stores. As Ninjacart has collected farmer and yield data over the years, the company is also looking to leverage the same and initiate farmer financing options.