The present scenario in the Indian cold chain logistics market is marred by a lack of communication between producers and transporters. This is a major hindrance when the nature of perishable goods is taken into consideration. A technology-driven startup, Celcius, has identified this gap in the market and has established a wide network through the collaboration of transporters, cold storage service providers, and perishable products manufacturers. The company’s SaaS-based platform monitors each aspect of the cold chain process in real-time and provides predictive analysis of the journey with alerts for anything that might require immediate attention. Industry Outlook interacted with Swarup Bose, the company’s Founder and CEO to get more insights into the operations of India’s premier cold chain network.
What are the major expectations of cold chain product manufacturers? How has the company positioned itself to meet those expectations?
Manufacturers in the cold chain space require solutions for transport and storage. Their primary concern is to ensure that they have enough space to store their products and that they are transported without causing any damage. The shelf-life of the products needs to be maintained. These requirements can be met with technological solutions that the cold chain industry has started to employ. With end-to-end monitoring and with operational checks and balances in place, the cold chain products can be transported at an optimum condition. Celcius has adopted these technological solutions and much more. This way, we diminish human errors in monitoring the temperature of the cold chain cargo. Also, with our platform, clients receive live reports at their fingertips and they can download data regarding the journey whenever desired.
How has the company been successful in becoming one of the trusted players in this segment today?
Celcius’ prime focus is on service. We ensure that we take all measures possible to provide the best service possible. Our proprietary software and backend operations teamwork in tandem giving a seamless solution to our clients. We have also designed our system in a way that the manufacturers receive constant updates about their products. We have maintained a 99.3 percent on-schedule delivery record and a 100 percent temperature adherence record since our inception. Our services have rapidly helped in expanding our client base in a short span of time. Having provided services to clients in over 97 cities pan India, we are confident in continuing this growth in the months to come.
Tell us about the various specifications of your range of services. What are the major differentiating factors that set you apart from the other players in this space?
India does not have enough cold chain reefer trucks and cold storage facilities to tend to the needs of every city and remote area. We recognized the need for India to maximize the use of the available cold chain infrastructure and concluded that collaboration between cold chain entities was the best way to get the most out of the available cold chain resources. Celcius is the
only cold chain aggregator platform in India as of now. Our platform is SaaS-based and it stores all the information about cold chain transporters, manufacturers and shippers. These entities can then reach out to one another based on their requirements. Celcius’ platform also maps the lifecycle of perishable products with live monitoring. We team up with transporters and shipping companies of various sizes and help them upgrade their facilities with the latest available cold chain technology. We also ensure that their services are GDP compliant. Through our association with small-scale transporters, we ensure that the cold chain products reach the smaller cities and rural areas of the country. They also get the opportunity to take up bigger consignments through our platform and work on a national level.
How has the company been leveraging new technologies to bring in the needed innovation in the market today?
Celcius believes in a technology-based approach. We leverage technology to enhance our services and to make the cold supply chain process a lot more efficient. Our AI-backed platform seamlessly integrates with the data of our clientele and it helps them interact and work with each other based on their requirements. Celcius’ platform allows us to track the location of any shipment along with other details like temperature excursions, humidity, battery conditions, detecting damage from shock, and it provides constant alerts and live updates. We also run technology and quality checks on cold storage facilities and transporters before getting them on board with us. We ensure that each cold storage unit/reefer truck comes with an IoT-based thermal sensor or thermal mapping technology. Along with providing accurate temperature profile readings of the products while in transit, these sensors also monitor the reefer trucks and detect faulty insulation. This helps prolong the shelf-life of the products. We are also planning on integrating Transportation Management Systems (TMS) and Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) onto our platform to make it a one-stop solution for all cold-chain management requirements.
We have maintained a 99.3 percent on-schedule delivery record and a 100 percent temperature adherence record since our inception
How has been the overall journey of the company? Tell us with respect to its growth in terms of revenue and geographical presence.
Celcius started as an idea in 2020. The beginning of the pandemic was an eye-opener for us as we realized how the country was in dire need of an interconnected cold chain network. We wanted to create a platform that would let cold chain product manufacturers, be it fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy, fish, meat or pharmaceuticals, to partner with us and take advantage of our rich database of shipping companies that would haul their products across the country without any limitations. We wanted to ensure that cold chain products were available and accessible to everyone in the country, ranging from tier-I to tier-III cities and remote areas. By August 2020, we had a fully functioning platform, and we started our operations by November 2020. We were fortunate enough to have investors that could see the potential that we held. Our seed funding round was extremely successful, and we received funds of $500,000 from Mumbai Angels Network, along with Huddle, Lumis Partners, MaGEHold, Keiretsu Forum, and investors from Malaysia, Nigeria, and the US.
Now, over 11 months later, we have over 3000 refrigerated vehicles, secured over 200 large and small institutions as clientele, and had expanded to over 93 cities and we aim to cover 200 cities by next year. We have our headquarters in Mumbai and are in the process of establishing several other headquarters in tier-1 cities. We have transported more than 10,000 tonnes of essential commodities and perishable goods and we have also distributed Covid vaccines across 10 cities with our last-mile delivery network.
“We believe in a technology based approach. We leverage technology to enhance our services and to make the cold supply chain process a lot more efficient”
Where do you see this market in the near future? What is the future roadmap for your company?
So far, Celcius has been active in the business of primary transportation. However, we are now ramping up our operations in the second leg of our journey. The roadmap ahead for us is the final integration of cold storage warehousing and last-mile deliveries which will create the world's first complete end-to-end solution for the cold supply chain industry. The cold chain market will only grow and flourish in the coming years. In order for us to arrest food wastage, and provide conditions for perishable cargo to have a longer shelf-life, we have to ensure that the industry is backed with the best technological offerings. This will solve a lot of issues such as shortage of food in the country, and less consumption of certain perishable products. This will also reduce the overall cost of these essential commodities. In doing so, we can make cold chain perishables like dairy, fruits, vegetables, fish, and more easily accessible and affordable to a large population of the country.
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