Zappfresh builds cold-chain muscle to push frozen foods

Recently listed Zappfresh is preparing to make its boldest bet yet.

- Sakshi Sadashiv

To back its frozen-foods push, including vegetarian lines, the company is leaning heavily on cold-chain upgrades.

Barely a month after beating bigger rivals Licious and FreshTo-Home to the public markets through an SME IPO that ended up undersubscribed, the Gurugram-based meat brand now wants to push into the far more capital-intensive frozen foods business, including vegetarian products.

It’s an ambitious pivot for a company with just $16 million in funding, especially in a space where deep pockets, cold-chain discipline, and patient capital tend to determine who survives. That tension sits at the heart of Zappfresh’s next chapter: The firm wants to grow beyond fresh meat and build a broader frozen portfolio. Doing so, however, demands heavy investment in freezing technology, temperature-controlled storage and automated distribution—areas where far larger