Sanjeev Kapoor along with three partners invests $2 MN in ZuperMeal

Sanjeev Kapoor together with Ravi Saxena, Co-Founder of Kitchen appliance maker Wonderchef and two global partners has invested around $2 million in home-cooked start up ZuperMeal.

The company was started by Saxena’s wife Pallavi Saxena together with Prabhakar Banerjee and Balasubramanian A, both engineers and Indian Institute of Management graduates.

According to Kapoor women empowerment and skill development are key priorities outlined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ZuperMeal helps Indian women to use their skills to make money and take pride that their food is recognised.

"Our idea of empowering homemakers through ZuperMeal is not just transactions, but we will also teach them. Ultimately, this is a skillset and product that they already have and we are enabling them to earn through it," shared Kapoor.

The group which has about 300 home chefs listed with them on the website of which 100 is active chefs, targets to expand its services around the city with the fund raised. 

“We are building our operations, marketing and team. In the first phase of expansion we should cover whole Mumbai then Navi Mumbai and Thane,” added Banerjee, one of the co-founder with ZuperMeal.

The group is also targeting to reach about 500 cities in next three years time partnering with around 60000 home-chefs in these cities.

"ZuperMeal is not a delivery service alone. It is a complete food business where the best talent is identified, their best dishes are curated, priced and presented by us," said Pallavi who is the women behind the start-up.

On asking about the number of orders it get, Banerjee added that, “On average we get 70 orders a day which goes up to 92-95 some other day. So there is no fix number, the orders are generally between 70-100 with a return ration of 15 per cent.”

ZuperMeal is betting the concept of 'eating out at home' will provide an alternative to eating out by delivering fresh, home-cooked food at the customer's doorstep without additives or preservatives.

"Through this strategic investment, ZuperMeal has the opportunity to leverage the strong network of 35,000 women entrepreneurs of Wonderchef and scale-up quickly across the country," said Saxena of Wonderchef. These women entrepreneurs are part of Wonderchef's network of appliance sellers.