Vivek Haldar (EDHEC Global MBA 2015), Co-Founder and CEO of Machlibazaar.com

Our EDHEC Global MBA 2015 alumnus Vivek Haldar is building a same day caught fresh fish delivery platform using blockchain technology which will trace the fish from Oceans/Rivers/Ponds/Lakes to plates of the consumer. Machlibazaar.com was selected by the Government of India to showcase in the Startup India Innovation Week in January’ 2022.

Who are you?

I am Vivek Haldar, Co-Founder and CEO of Machlibazaar.com. I completed my Undergraduate Studies in Civil Engineering at IIT Mumbai in 2010 and did my Global MBA from EDHEC in 2015. I took the Entrepreneurship Track during my MBA programme and created Bharatkraft.com as part of the Entrepreneurship Track Project, which was India’s first map based system for the Identification of Indian Indigenueus Handicrafts. During my final year of Undergraduate Degree at IIT Bombay, I had founded Amantran Agri, which was a platform for selling produce of farmers to the end consumers using technology. 

Can you explain in a few words how your company began? 

Being a Bengali, I love fish and seafood, but the traditional Indian market has failed to live up to my expectations. Stale fish dinners are sold in most restaurants in Mumbai and my college - IIT Bombay was no different when it came to serving fish.

Following many years, the condition has remained the same as the quality of the meat and seafood available here is poor compared to global standards. Despite multiple companies claiming to deliver fresh fish, they continue to sell the same stale fish with added chemical preservatives at a price higher than the market rate, which prevents it from being widely available.

To address this, me along with my other co-founders, Sachin Haldar and Rupesh Kadam, stepped ahead to take advantage of the opportunity and deliver fresh same-day sourced fish with zero preservatives and storage to the customers at their doorsteps. This is how Machlibazaar.com came into being.

We are trying to create a Deep Tech platform for same-day caught fish using blockchain technology and traceability, so that customers get to know all about the fish which they are eating, its origin, its journey etc. For thousands of years, we have been buying fish and seafood without knowing its origin or day of catch. We are trying to bring this transparency to the consumers.   

What is your first assessment of this entrepreneurial adventure?

With almost zero marketing budget, we have come a long way to deliver same day caught fish to our customers with the help of word of mouth. Our customers are helping us spread the word about our business and the journey is exciting. Though the journey seems to be long, we are just getting started. With all the major cities of the world situated on natural harbors, our model can easily be replicated there. 

Have you benefited from the EDHEC alumni network at any time?

I have been in touch with quite a few from the EDHEC Alumni Network who are helping me in shaping Machlibazaar.com and taking it to the next level. 

What advice can you give to new entrepreneurs?

Entrepreneurship is tough. We need to have nerves of steel and a never give up attitude in order to create something new. There will be failures but we need to take them as stepping stones and take learnings from them in order to create something big out of them.  

What are the next stages for your company? 

We are an early stage company and we are looking for seed investment, so that we can upgrade our tech products and hammer the market all throughout. We are currently serving Mumbai and its satellite cities but we want to expand to other cities.  

Do you have expectations for the EDHEC alumni community?

We are open to all kinds of support from the EDHEC Alumni community. Anything from fundraising, from finding a Co-Founder who can help us shape the tech products in a better way as we all are from hard tech backgrounds. 

More information:

Our Website can be reached at www.machlibazaar.com 

Our Social Media  :

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/machlibazaarglobal

 Linkedin Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/machlibazaar/ 

Instagram Page: https://www.instagram.com/machlibazaar/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/machlibazaar