WayCool Foods, an agri-commerce company, has raised USD 117 million in its Series D round, which saw participation from new and existing investors such as LightRock, LightBox, FMO, Lightsmith, World Bank Group’s IFC, Redwood Equity Partners and Gawa Capital. WayCool Foods will use the fresh capital to leverage deep tech and automation to enhance its efficiency multi-fold.

Elaborating on the funding, Karthik Jayaraman, chief executive officer and co-founder, WayCool Foods said, “We have raised a total of USD 117 million as a part of our Series D as a combination of equity (80%) and debt (20%). We are happy to have brought onboard like-minded partners who understand the nuances of this sector and are committed to not only our growth, but also our purpose.”

He said the deployment of funds has already begun and its priority would be to deepen and widen its technology and automation.

"We will also deploy the funds to deepen our footprint in our target geographies, adding up to 50 more distribution points over the next 18 months. Finally, we will be investing to create a keiretsu of businesses, who bring complementary capabilities and are aligned to our purpose,” Jayaraman added.  

WayCool has begun building its new technology centre in Bengaluru, which will build out the tech platform and add layers of AI and analytics. The centre will also incorporate labs for robotics, IoT and automation, which will design the automated distribution centres of the future. WayCool also plans to add new food categories into its platform, and strengthen its private label brands, particularly in value added food products.

WayCool has a wide product range across multiple channels and categories such as fresh produce, staples, and dairy, serving over 1,00,000 clients in the general trade, modern trade, eCommerce, and food services space. With its deep and dense network, it caters to over 500 locations in southern and western India. WayCool's private label brands basket consists of Madhuram, Shuddha, Kitchenji, L'exotique and Freshey’s, to name a few.