Raghav Bansal (28)Kanav Agarwal (26) Co-founders, Frostar
Some come back from Spain with souvenirs; Raghav Bansal returned with a business plan.
While pursuing an MBA at the IE Business School in Madrid, Bansal noticed that frozen foods were integrated into daily life. Even vegetables at grocery stores, bought fresh, would have been frozen before they got there—words that were considered a juxtaposition to each other in India.
“People in India believe that frozen food is not fresh—that’s not always true,” Bansal, 28, says. “The truth is that in India, the quality, hygiene, depth or touch of frozen foods haven’t been up to global standards. The idea is to offer preservative-free, farm-fresh vegetables frozen at their peak, so that they reach your table in their best form, minimising wastage.”
Bansal teamed up with cousins Kanav Agarwal, 26, and Vishesh Bansal, 32, to create Frostar in September 2023: What the trio describes as a farmer-first frozen foods company that aims to transform India’s supply chain. The more they looked into the problem, the more triggers they found to pursue their plan.
“About 40 percent of India’s crops go to waste,” says Agarwal, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Frostar. “By freezing them at their peak, we’re conserving their integrity and ingredients in a way that lasts a whole year, helping farmers minimise waste. Moreover, this means that these foods are available through the year, regardless of season.”
Frostar uses Individual Quick Freezing (IQF) technology, which involves rapidly freezing individual food pieces using very cold, high velocity air. This prevents large ice crystals that damage texture and quality, which occurs in block freezing. With IQF, items are frozen separately, so that consumers can take only what they need, extending shelf life and allowing for easy portioning and storage.
Frostar works via contract farming, partnering with about 120 farmers across the Uttar Pradesh-Punjab-Haryana belt.
“At its core, our model is built around farmer empowerment,” Bansal, the company’s co-founder and chief marketing officer, says. “By signing long-term organic farming contracts with guaranteed pricing, we ensure farmers receive fair compensation. They also have access to training and essential inputs, raising their incomes while advancing sustainable practices.”
What sets Frostar apart, Agarwal says, is their in-house team of agronomists, who collaborate with farmers. “They are constantly on the farms monitoring capability, efficiency, even that the farms follow proper government norms when using pesticides, if any,” he says.
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Another reason to enter the agriculture space, Bansal says, was that government grants were easily accessible. Frostar has received ₹9 crore from the government so far, and the rest is bootstrapped. Its revenue in FY25 was ₹42 crore, with its bottom line at ₹0.92 crore.
“In less than two years, Frostar has built partnerships with over 100 farmers, processed more than 20,000 tonnes of produce, cut wastage by 8 to 9 percent, and delivered to over 100,000 consumers,” Bansal adds.
Frostar works out of a facility in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, spread across four acres. Since the plant uses IQF, each item can be frozen in the form that their customers need: Peas that have been peeled, carrots cut a certain way. Frostar works via a B2B model, supplying to wholesale suppliers across north India, but is working on a B2C model for the future.
About 50 percent of its operations work on solar power. Since the project uses a lot of water, the team is working on solutions for water recycling, to reduce their fresh water consumption.
“The company demonstrates excellent execution, scale and impact,” says Pooja Dhingra, founder of dessert chain Le15 Patisserie and 30 Under 30 jury member for the food and hospitality category. “It’s a less ‘sexy’ area, but has extremely high business and systems innovation potential.”
First Published: Jan 16, 2026, 14:26
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