Captain Fresh, the Bengaluru-based seafood supply-chain and packaged seafood company, has crossed the ₹5,000 crore revenue mark, reporting consolidated net revenue of ₹5,169 crore for the financial year ended March 2026, a 52% increase from ₹3,397 crore in FY25.
The company, which disclosed its results on 22 September 2026, also reported a sharp improvement in profitability. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 173% to ₹371 crore from ₹136 crore a year earlier, while gross margin expanded by 6.5 percentage points to 23.5% from 17%. Captain Fresh remained profit-after-tax positive for the second consecutive year.
The company has set an ambitious target for the current financial year: revenue of ₹10,000 crore, or roughly $1.1 billion, in FY27.
Growth through a turbulent trade year
The results are notable given the environment in which they were achieved. FY26 was a difficult year for global seafood trade, marked by tariff uncertainty and disruptions to supply chains. For a company with heavy exposure to export markets, particularly the United States, those pressures could easily have derailed growth.
"FY26 stress tested the industry in the form of tariffs and an unsettled trade environment, and we came out stronger than we went in," said Mathew George, Group CFO and Whole-time Director of Captain Fresh.
George said return on capital employed improved from 9% to 11% and that the company is targeting a ROCE above 20% in FY27. He also noted that the company's debt-to-equity ratio stood at 1.6, which he described as conservative for a business that has grown at an 80% compound annual growth rate over the past three years.
From B2B marketplace to global seafood platform
Founded in 2019 by Utham Gowda, a former investment banker who spent years studying the seafood industry, Captain Fresh began as a business-to-business platform aimed at organising India's fragmented seafood supply chain. The company later shifted its focus towards international markets, where demand was more stable and margins stronger, and has built a significant export business.
In FY25, exports accounted for the overwhelming majority of the company's operating revenue, with the United States alone contributing about 71% of total revenue, according to earlier disclosures. Captain Fresh has also expanded through acquisitions, including Poland's Koral, Indonesia's Fishlog and US-based CenSea, giving it processing capacity, distribution and brands in key markets.
The company's recent emphasis has been on moving up the value chain into branded and ready-to-eat seafood products, which typically command higher margins than commodity trading. George said margin expansion had been the priority in FY26 and that each step further into ready-to-eat products would extend it. He added that the company delivered about ₹1 crore of EBITDA a day through FY26 and is close to ₹2 crore a day currently.
The balance-sheet question
Captain Fresh's growth has required significant working capital. The company ended FY26 with ₹2,300 crore of debt, of which ₹440 crore was long-term borrowing, with the remainder comprising working-capital financing, according to reports. It attributed the higher working-capital requirement to elevated inventory levels maintained during the year to ensure uninterrupted supply to customers amid global disruptions.
The company is targeting a reduction in its debt-to-equity ratio to between 1.3 and 1.5 as operating conditions normalise. For investors, the trajectory of working capital and debt will be as important as revenue growth. Seafood is a perishable, inventory-intensive business exposed to commodity-price swings, currency movements and trade policy, and disciplined capital management will be critical to sustaining returns.
