Food-tech startup FreshMenu in early talks with PEs to raise $75 million

Kitchens@ is a cloud kitchen startup, secured $65 million from Finnest, a London-based private equity firm, in its Series C funding round.

Kitchens@ announced in a press release that the raised funds will support the expansion of their hybrid model, Dinerium, which combines offline and online components.

Prior to this funding round, Kitchens@ had secured $17.5 million from investors such as Trifecta, Beenext, DG Ventures, and other contributors.

Kitchens@ is headquartered in Bengaluru, offers comprehensive solutions to F&B brands seeking expansion, providing a range of services from infrastructure and technology to operational support.

Collaborating with various food brands like Domino’s, Subway, Taco Bell, Nando’s, ChicKing, and national chains such as ITC, Mainland China, and Barbeque Nation, it facilitates their growth.

In May 2022, Kitchens@ revealed its integration with Kitchens Centre, a company based in Delhi.

Earlier this year, it completed an acquisition of Swiggy’s Access Kitchens business through a share swap agreement.

According to Kitchens@ CEO Junaiz Kizhakkayil, this acquisition will aid in the company's expansion across four cities, encompassing 52 locations and over 700 kitchens.

The company mentioned that the acquisition would result in a combined yearly Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of $65 million (approximately Rs 520 crore) for Kitchens@.

Additionally, Kitchens@ is striving to achieve a revenue target of $100 million (around Rs 800 crore) within the upcoming six months.

Although Kitchens@ hasn't submitted its annual financial report for the fiscal year 2022-2023, it documented a revenue of Rs 37.37 crore in the preceding fiscal year. However, it incurred a loss of Rs 43.15 crore during the same period.

This funding round marks a significant milestone for a cloud kitchen brand in 2023. In April, Curefoods secured $36.5 million, with primary backing from Three State Ventures, spearheaded by Binny Bansal. Notably, Rebel Foods emerged as the dominant contender in this sector, achieving unicorn status following a $175 million funding round in October 2021.

Finnest, the primary investor, is a growth investment firm led by Biswanath Patnaik, known for supporting early-stage investments.

The firm directs its investments towards startups concentrated in banking, healthcare, consumer products, fintech, and renewable sectors.

JustMyRoots, the intercity food delivery startup, has completed its acquisition of The State Plate (TSP), a company specializing in non-perishable packaged food products.

This strategic move is a pivotal step in JustMyRoots' overarching strategy to broaden its footprint within the nationwide packaged intercity food market.

TSP made a notable appearance on the first season of Shark Tank India and secured investment from Peyush Bensal, the CEO of Lenskart.

Furthermore, it successfully raised pre-seed capital from Antler India, valuing the company at approximately $2 million.

As part of the agreement, Muskaan Sancheti and Raghav Jhawar, the founders of TSP, will seamlessly join the JustMyRoots team and retain their roles in overseeing the business.

Samiran Sengupta, CEO of JustMyRoots, expressed that this acquisition marks a substantial step in their ongoing commitment to revolutionize intercity food delivery in India.

Former Indian cricketer Sourav Ganguly has recently acquired a minority share in JustMyRoots.

Hyderabad has welcomed a new restaurant The Pink Elephant, a space that is unabashedly-purely-entirely Indian.

The restaurant is divided into the fountain courtyard, the monument room, elephant lounge and the courtyard and also has one of the most luxurious private dining rooms that houses a 20 people table & a private bar.

The basic principle of setting up a restaurant that looks like The Pink Elephant and serves food like it – is to draw attention to the elaborate, variety of food that India puts on its plates, wherever you go, and is an ode to the intricate nuances of Indian cooking. – creates a bespoke experience for every diner.

The Pink Elephant's Executive Chef, Mrigank Singh, has traversed far and wide to curate the most authentic recipes of India, for food patrons. The bold yet simple flavour of the mutton plate from Rajasthan royalty, the silky smooth texture of Lucknow's Kormas and Musallams, and the exquisite flavors of Kashmir's Wazwan are a few highlights of the menu.

“The Pink Elephant is a reflection of how India enjoys eating, What, Where and with whom. It's an amalgam of absolute classics and true moderns,” said Mrigank Singh, Chef, The Pink Elephant.

The Pink Elephant boasts of a well-stocked bar, that's classic, serious, current and fun. Whether it's some smooth Japanese Single Malt or Indian distilled Gins, the Bar keeps itself well stocked. Technique led cocktails; local ingredient based non-alcoholic drinks tie up the whole menu beautifully. TPE Rasam - a spirited concoction of Tadka Ghee Washed Tequila, Indian Spices, Tamarind, Jaggery and Curry Leaf is a Signature Cocktail that gives you a sneak peek into what’s brewing behind that imposing bar. Virgin drinks like the Kokum & Berry Spritz, Spicy Peru Margarita are a delight in a glass – pretty to boot. 

The music is ‘everything’ to be precise, there is R&B, Techno, Indie and for sure a bit of bolly thrown in for good measure.

The Kind Roastery and Brewroom has recently opened its door in Marenahalli, Bengaluru.

Spread over two floors, this coffee-inspired space is open daily from 8am to 11pm and offers exceptional food and the best of coffee, all under one roof.

The brand persona is built on four pillars: The Kind Brews, The Kind People, The Kind Planet, and The Kind Food, which represent the café's commitment to sustainability, authenticity, and providing the best experience for their clients.

Founded by Pallavii Gupta and Arjun Shhetty, who have been in the hospitality industry for over a decade. With a passion for creating unique and memorable experiences, The Kind Roastery and Brewroom is their fourth venture in the hospitality industry. They wanted to build a brand that embodies their energy, a place where people can come and feel welcomed and inspired.

The café's mission is to infuse kindness into every aspect of the experience. By making vegetarian and vegan food more approachable and accessible, The Kind Roastery and Brewroom believes that it is taking the first step towards a kinder planet. The Zen Table, designed to stimulate kindness and creativity, offers a space where people can pause, reflect, and find peace amidst the chaos of everyday life.

The teas and coffees are sourced from estates within the country, with a unique blend crafted specifically for the café's menu. From Coconut Coffee to Cinnamon and Jaggery Coffee, Jackfruit Latte, and loose leaf fennel teas, the café has worked tirelessly to create flavors.

South Bombay’s much-loved resto-bar, The Bombay Cartel (TBC) opens doors at Juhu's tallest commercial space, the Tiara Building.

Spread over two-level, the rooftop offers breath-taking views of the cityscape along with a mild soothing gush of sea breeze to transport your senses into a state of calm, taking your mind off the urban chaos.

Known for their lip-smacking multi-cuisine vegetarian fare of unique small plates, wholesome large plates, comforting soul food, exquisite drinks and craft cocktails, one can expect a great modern dining space with a ravishing bar that hosts dedicated nights for Live Music and DJ Nights.

“Food is the backbone of our brand. Drinks may be the same everywhere but people will only come back only for good food. Our thought process was that the food has to be basic, good and consistent. It should make people happy and everyone should go home with a smile,” shared Rahul Bhansali, co-founder, The Bombay Cartel.

Designed by Architect Summesh Menon, the spacious interiors of the Juhu outlet represents his quintessential style, blended intricately with the design ethos of The Bombay Cartel and its founders. A sensory-rich space with meticulously crafted efficient design solutions, there is sophistication and vibrancy in everything from the bespoke pattern terrazzo tiled flooring to the pebble granite leather finish bartop to Menon’s signature arches, and cosy, comfortable seating. The signature space resonates with everyone at some level or another.

Inspired by the Narcos series that the founder and their friends were watching at the time they launched the first outlet in 2015, they came up with the name ‘The Bombay Cartel’ and thought it was apt with their vision of expanding the cartel to other places in the city and other cities as well. In no time, The Bombay Cartel became the talk of the town even after it moved to Hubtown, Breach Candy and has continued to be a favourite among SoBoites when it shifted to Kamala Mills in 2020. The new outlet at Juhu to is all set to make some noise in the city's F&B circuit.

In a world where offering non-vegetarian food helps businesses grow, Bhansali stays true to his beliefs and knows his audience as well. “For South Bombay and Juhu alike, vegetarian is the way to go and offering options to Jains is a must and that is what we are here to offer. Think of a veg dish and we have it, think of a Jain variant, and we have it,” he added by pointing that the vision is to use an interplay of a global cooking style using local, seasonal produce to make world-class vegetarian food that suits the Indian palette.

Designed by an in-house team of marketing experts, the menu looks enticing with lip-smacking pictures of the original dish, without making the design look too busy. “You get what you see, a concept inspired by the city's famous Udupi restaurants that have pictures plastered on the wall. Of course, we weren't going to do that but we wanted to add a visual appeal to the names you read on the menu,” he concluded.

Coimbatore Beverage snack and startup, TABP, has raised 20 crores in its pre-Series a Fundraise. 

The Pre-Series A Funding Round for TABP Snacks & Beverages was Headed by LC Nueva AIF and Arun Mukherjee, with Significant Contributions from Prominent Angels including Koushik Chatterjee, CFO of Tata Steel, and Aniruddha Sarkar, CIO of Quest Investment Advisors

“It's been some really exciting years of growth for TABP. After coming back from COVID-related slowdown, we have shown tremendous growth. In Q3 of 2022-23, we grew 172% compared to Q3 of the previous year. This year we are planning to expand into the east and west geographies of India.” said Prabhu Gandhikumar, Founder of TABP

The funds raised will be used for new territory expansion, R&D and creating more production capacity.

 “TABP is poised to become a leader in India’s beverage and snack space with its strong growth in Tier 2 and 3 markets” said Ashish Chand, Founding Partner, LC Nueva AIF

TABP is on target to clock Rs. 100 crores GMV in FY23, within 4 years of starting operations. TABP predominantly sells beverages priced at Rs 10 and snacks at Rs 5 targeting the bottom of the pyramid consumers in India.

TABP has operations in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Odisha.

Travel start-up Moonstone Hammock has opened its Buddha Café in Alibaug.

The café was earlier present at Pawna, Karjat and now, Alibaug, coupled with camping and glamping experiences alongwith with movie nights, live singing and one-of-a-kind workshops.

These experiences are further peppered with a culinary delight at the cute, Boho-style cafe called 'Buddha Cafe'.

“The pandemic hit all of us hard in different ways. The need to make the most out of life while we can is where we all intersect. With open access to the Buddha Cafe, we aim to not only spread the culinary magic of Moonstone Hammock wide and far, but also look forward to connecting more with campers, glamp-ers and now, foodies,” shared Pradeep Singh Chaudhary, the Co-Founder of Moonstone Hammock.

Dine with a view of the Ulhas River in Karjat, the Tungi Fort and Pawna Lake in Pawna or the Awas Beach in Alibaug while you gorge on piping hot, lip-smacking food right from Hummus and Pita Bread to Lasagnas and Brownies, and more.

With free parking on site, Moonstone Hammock curated a wholesome experience with its Buddha Cafe and Mother Nature.

Moonstone Hammock is a travel camping startup, was founded by Megh Doshi, Pradeep Singh Choudhary, Rohit Dube, Abhishek Dabholkar and Pratik Jain, in January 2016. They are currently located in three places Shelu in Karjat, Thakursai in Pawna and Awas in Alibaug.

ZFW Dark Stores, a full-stack fulfilment technology platform for E-commerce brands has raised a $1.2m Seed round from Riso Capital, SEA Fund, Lead Fund, and a clutch of marquee founder-angels.

New investors also include Middle East conglomerate Qudrah National Holdings, Archana Priyadarshini (GP, Point One Capital), South Asia Technology Partners, Long Tail Ventures, Jasminder Gulati (Founder, NowFloats; acquired by Reliance), and founders of India’s fastest-growing brands like The Mom’s Co (Mohit Sadaani), Rage Coffee (Bharat Sethi), Neeman's (Amar Chhabra), Jimmy’s Cocktails (Ankur Bhatia), Letsbuy.com (Amanpreet Bajaj), Thrive (Karan Chechani and Dhruv Dewan), Almo (Abhishek Shah), and Aman Arora (Keventers) among other angels. Existing investors like ice.vc, Mumbai Angels, & Arjun Vaidya (Founder, Dr. Vaidya’s) participated in the round too.

With these funds, the Delhi-based startup said it plans to grow dark store operations across India, accelerate hiring, & build more technological capabilities to create a seamless delivery experience.

“Our technology platform empowers new-age brands that want to sell through their own channels & offer a superior Amazon-like Same-Day Delivery experience to customers without breaking the bank or worrying about risks associated with over-dependence on E-commerce platforms (low margins, lack of control, & data). Solving for pain points in fulfillment like high RTOs, low customer delight, & margins is at the core of what we do,” shared Madhav Kasturia of ZFW Hospitality.

It previously raised $415,000 in pre-seed funding from Indvest Family Office, Runwal Group, and founders of Epigamia, Beardo, The Face Shop, NOTO, etc.

ZFW Dark Stores helps D2C brands fulfill orders to customers in 30 minutes, 2 hours, & Same Day through its network of dark stores and last-mile delivery across India. The tech-stack integrates with a brand’s existing platforms to provide complete visibility into supply-chain operations & customers.

The startup, founded in 2021 by cloud kitchen entrepreneur Madhav Kasturia, currently operates 150+ dark stores across India with brands across F&B, Personal Care, and Consumer Goods as customers like Rage Coffee, Clinikally, Epigamia, Jimmy’s Cocktails, HUL, Havmor Ice Cream, and Vadilal among others.

“We’re super excited to back Madhav & team- as they work towards scaling the dark warehousing market. Their disruptive 3-way integrated tech-stack and automation platform enable Tier 1/2 brands across India to cater to the rapidly growing D2C market expected to reach $100B by 2025,” added Sri Purisai, Founding Partner of Silicon Valley-based VC firm Riso Capital, said.

As part of its next phase, ZFW Dark Stores aims to expand to 10 cities across India by end of 2022.

Bengaluru-based coffee start-up SLAY has introduced the country’s very first Coffee Recommendation Engine in the form of an AR filter.

Coffee is one of the most dynamic beverages in the world that can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways. This constant development in the preparation style, flavours and combinations of coffee leads to an extensive menu with confusing names like Macchiato, Ristretto or Affogato - transforming the process of choosing a cup of coffee into a task, which only adds up to the worries of consumers rather than easing them.

By introducing its own coffee-recommending AR filter, SLAY Coffee intends to make this task of picking out a coffee an uncomplicated one. With a few quirky questions to better understand their coffee preferences - such as whether one drinks coffee with or without milk, flavours, hot or cold and so on - the AR filter will recommend a coffee that is perfect for the consumers’ needs and moods.

The filter is available on SLAY Coffee’s Instagram page. All one has to do is click on the filter, answer the four questions with just a nod of their heads and receive a coffee recommendation.

Not only that, but the filter also generates an exclusive coupon code that consumers can redeem during their next coffee purchase on Zomato.

Augmented Reality (AR) filters are computer-generated effects that work with the users’ camera, designed to be superimposed on real-life images and shareable on their social network.

With social media turning into an easily accessible medium with the tech-savvy generation, SLAY Coffee’s AR filter aims at reaching out to maximum coffee lovers to make their coffee discovery journey effortless. The filter offers them an opportunity to embrace new variants of coffee at the tip of their fingers, thereby creating an experience they want to repeat while bolstering the brand’s vision of democratizing great coffee.

Angel platform Inflection Point Ventures has invested an undisclosed amount in snacking startup Samosa Party.

This marks IPV’s8^th investments in the last 90 days, since the Corona Virus outbreak started in the Country.

IPV has been investing in startups in sectors like health tech, ed tech, delivery, online grocery and social distancing tech to help companies working in these areas scale up and eventually create a large-scale impact for helping people in managing the COVID situation.

“IPV is thrilled to be joining hands with Samosa Party and back their growth journey. Samosa Party has grown tremendously over the past couple of years and has risen to amongst the top brands for Indian snack food in Bangalore. In a post-COVID world of increasing focus on hygiene standards, startups like Samosa Party will be relevant as customers would trust hygienic and professional managed brands to serve them food with safety being the guiding force from kitchen to table,” said Ankur Mittal, Co-Founder, Inflection Point Ventures.

Samosa Party was launched with a mission to make good quality samosa accessible to customers across all channels in a hygienic and trustworthy environment.

It operates by solving the supply side problem with the production and consumption of samosa at scale using technology. With best customer repeat rate and hitting revenue targets even amid lockdown, Samosa Party has scaled to serving 1.5 lakh samosas per month.

“We have been running a profitable business and this funding round further strengthens my belief that good business models that can stand tall during downturns will have no shortage of funds with credible investors like IPV backing us,” added Amit Nanwani, Co-Founder of Samosa Party.

Samosa Party intends to utilise these funds to set up the infrastructure for scale, open cloud kitchens across Bangalore and other tier 1 cities. Also, they look forward to improving their unique production technology, and at present, claim to run the leanest and the most productive cloud kitchen at Rs. 8000 per sq ft.

The Indian snack market is pegged at Rs 42 lakh crores and 65% of this is completely unorganised. With rising concerns around hygiene and well-being, customers will opt for branded and dependable food brands. With Indians consuming 2.7 times snacks compared to 2.3 times meals, Samosa Party taps this space to reach every corner of the country.

Mumbai-based agri-tech startup FreshVnF has raised around $2 million (around Rs 14 crore) in a funding round led by investment firm Equanimity Ventures.

GVFL, Ahmedabad-based venture capital firm, and the family office of Manish Choksi, Asian Paints Ltd non-executive vice chairman, also invested in the agri-tech startup, FreshVnF confirmed in a statement.

VNF Ideas Pvt. Ltd operates the technology platform FreshVnF.

"These funds will help us grow our farm network for consistent supplies, build our technology platform for seamless supply chain operations at scale, and help us achieve our goal of providing fresh farm produce to the end customer within 16 hours of harvesting," said Atul Kumar, co-founder of FreshVnF.

FreshVnF is a ML driven technology platform creating market linkages for farmers by streamlining the supply chain from farm to fork bringing efficiency and transparency.

Speaking about the fund raised, Atul Kumar said, "the capital will help the company grow its farm network, build its technology platform for seamless supply chain operations at scale, and achieve its goal of providing farm produce to customers within 16 hours of harvesting. FreshVnF will work aggressively to increase its retail footprint and service over one lakh retail customers in western India."

FreshVnF was started by IIT and IIM graduates Vikas Dosala, Atul Kumar, Aashish Krishnatre and Sumit Rai in 2018. At present, the agri-tech start-up is operating in Mumbai. According to FreshVnF, it delivers 15 tonnes of products per day. 

It has 300 outlets on board that includes new-age restaurant chains, too. The Mumbai-based startup is looking to reach to 5,000+ clients and grow its operating volume to 100-plus tonnes per day in a year. FreshVnF caters to retail consumers through its brand Fraazo. FreshVnF is focused on doing the heavy lifting in order to build a safe food ecosystem.

एचआईबीपी एक वेबसाइट के अनुसार, खाद्य तकनीक स्टार्टअप फ्रेश मेनु 2016 में एक डेटा कि चारों ओर 1,10,000 ग्राहकों की व्यक्तिगत डेटा उजागर सामना करना पड़ा है। ईमेल पते, नाम, फोन नंबर, घर के पते और उपयोगकर्ताओं के आर्डर हिस्ट्री जैसे व्यक्तिगत डेटा का खुलासा किया गया था।

कंपनी ने बताया कि यह डेटा उल्लंघन के बारे में जानता था, लेकिन प्रभावित उपयोगकर्ताओं को सूचित नहीं करना नहीं चुना गया।

एचआईबीपी एक मंच है, जो डेटा उल्लंघनों का डेटाबेस रखता है। यह इंटरनेट उपयोगकर्ताओं को यह जांचने है कि डेटा उल्लंघनों से उनकी व्यक्तिगत जानकारी से समझौता किया गया है या नहीं। मंच ट्रॉय हंट द्वारा बनाया गया था, जो माइक्रोसॉफ्ट में एक क्षेत्रीय निदेशक भी है।

रश्मि डागा, फ्रेश मेनु के संस्थापक ने कहा, "विश्वास आपके सम्बन्ध  को साझा करने का अभिन्न अंग है और हमें खेद है उस इवेंट के लिए जो कि इस विश्वास के साथ समझौता किया जा रहा है । उस पल में, हमारा  मानना ​​था कि जब से उल्लंघन सीमित था, हम ध्यान केंद्रित करेंगे मतभेदों को हल करने और यह सुनिश्चित करने के लिए कि कोई और उल्लंघन न हो।"

"डागा ने स्पष्ट किया  "ग़ुम जानकारी की वजह से "नाम, ईमेल-आईडी और फोन नंबर का समझौता करना पड़ा। इस समय के दौरान किसी भी बिंदु नहीं था कि इस तरह के उपयोगकर्ता पासवर्ड या भुगतान संबंधी जानकारी हो और उसका  उल्लंघन किया गया हो । हमने  हमेशा पीसाई डीएसएस अनुपालन करने वाली विधि भुगतान जानकारी स्टोर करने के लिए सुरक्षित भुगतान सहयोगियों के साथ काम किया है उनकी तरफ से सिस्टम और यह बिल्कुल सुरक्षित है। भले ही, यह स्पष्ट है कि हम इस जानकारी को उसी समय हमारे उपयोगकर्ताओं को सूचित कर सकते थे।"

As per a website haveibeenpwned (HIBP), the food-tech startup FreshMenu has suffered a data breach in 2016 that exposed personal data of around 1,10,000 customers. Personal data such as email addresses, names, phone numbers, home addresses and order histories of users were exposed.

The company told that it knew about the data breach but chose not to inform the affected users. 

HIBP is a platform which maintains a database of data breaches. It lets internet users check if their personal information has been compromised by data breaches. The platform was created by Troy Hunt, who is also a regional director at Microsoft.

Rashmi Daga, Founder of FreshMenu, said, "Trust is integral to the relationship we share with you and we regret the event that led to this trust being compromised. In that moment, we believed that the since the breach was limited, we would focus on resolving the vulnerability and making sure that no further breaches happen."

"The stolen information comprised of names, email-ids and phone numbers. At no point during this time was information such as user passwords or payment related information, breached. We have always worked with secure payment partners to store payment information in PCI DSS compliant systems on their side and that is absolutely safe. Regardless, it is clear in hindsight that we could have communicated this information to our users at that time," Daga clarified.

Online food ordering and restaurant discovery platform Zomato has acquired a Bengaluru-based startup TongueStun Food. The cash and stock deal is fixed at about $18 million. Tonguestan works as an online marketplace and is a caterers and restaurants aggregation platform.

The startup has so far raised less than $5 million from Uniqorn Ventures, a hospitality fund run by investment bank o3 Capital, and Haresh Chawla, a partner at private equity fund True North.

Deepinder Goyal, Co-founder & CEO at Zomato, said, "We don't see the ceiling to how big this market could become just yet. What we know is that this market is very high frequency, and customers are very sticky as they end up placing more than 20 orders a month on the Tonguestun platform." 

Founded by Manjunath Ramkrishnan in 2012, TongueStun has over 1,000 curated food partners along with 1,500 companies on its platform in six cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Gurugram, and Pune.

Zomato will integrate TongueStun app into it. TongueStun’s acquisition will help it to scale its business in the corporate segment.

The TongueStan acquisition for Zomato marks its 12th such deal. Last year, the company, in one of its bigger deals, had acquired hyperlocal logistics startup Runnr to add muscle to its delivery capabilities.

A packaged food startup Sattviko has raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from marquee investors. The investors include Helion Venture founder Ashish Gupta, former EY India Head Sunil Chandiramani and other senior private equity professionals.

Set up in 2014, the company had raised its Pre-Series A investment in September last year from a clutch of investors led by Raman Roy, Nasscom's Chairman. The company plans to expand into Dubai and US.

Prasoon Gupta, Co-founder of Sattviko, said, “Our next step is to initiate our Dubai and US operation. Over time, we will endeavour to penetrate across geographies and borders, introducing the Sattwik taste of Indian-origin recipes and healthy food items to the world.”

Sattviko has presence in 10 major cities in India and across all large retailers like BigBazaar, More, Hypercity, Easyday, Spar, Metro, etc. The startup claimed that it used the earlier fund amounts to grow six times in FY 2017-18. Sattviko now aims to touch Rs 50 crore mark in FY 2018-19.

Ready-to-eat popcorn maker brand ‘Popi-Corn’, which is owned by Timla Foods has raised $2 million in debt financing from Anicut Capital.

The Chennai-based alternative asset management firm, counts beer brand Bira maker’s B9 Beverages among its prominent investments.

Kae Capital-backed Timla Foods, which has so far raised over $3 million in debt and equity, is present across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Delhi and Bengaluru.

The firm was founded in 2016 and has since expanded to over 35,000 retail touch points in key metros, selling about about 85% of the 3,50,000 packets it manufactures every day.

“We have started our expansion on the B2B side. Over the next two years, general trade and modern trade will form about 65% of our revenues, while B2B will form 35%. Cinema halls and Indian Railways are some of the key areas of focus,” said Prashanth Gowriraju, CEO of Timla Foods.

Hyderabad-based Timla Foods aims to close FY19 with about Rs 80-100 crore in revenue with about Rs 5 crore in monthly turnover at present. The food firm aims to beef up the existing production capacity,

The firm produces popcorn worth Rs 8 crore per month at facility in Andhra Pradesh. A second unit will be set up in northern India to cater to the northern markets.

Bengaluru-based personalisation technology firm, Dishq which is aimed to serve the food and beverage industry, has secured $400,000 (Rs 2.7 crore) pre-seed fund from from Techstars’ food and agriculture technology accelerator Farm to Fork and Arts Alliance.

The Syndicate Fund and angel investor Sven Hensen, founder and managing partner of business analytics firm mayato. Existing investors Zeroth, a startup accelerator, and Artesian Venture Partners also participated in this funding round.

According to the company the raised amount will be used to expand its engineering team and to accelerate its sales and marketing activities.

The artificial intelligence startup takes food science and machine learning into help to predict people’s tastes. Dishq claims to have developed what it calls a ‘food brain’ that can predict both an individual’s food preferences as well as broader industry trends.

The startup was launched in December 2015 by Kishan Vasani (chief executive) and Sai Sreenivas Kodur (technology head), who both previously worked at online food ordering ventures Just Eat and Zomato, respectively.

The tech service provider is currently powering more than 30 million recommendations each month. It claims to have its users across six markets for its first product, a business-to-business (B2B) personalisation engine.

“Our technology essentially brings greater alignment between producers and consumers, and we’re truly honoured and excited to have the backing of such fantastic investors for our vision,” Vasani said.

Delhi-based startup Original Ice Creams today said it has raised Rs 3 crore in equity funding from Maverick group for a 30 per cent stake in the company.

"Three of our outlets are already operational and we were able to achieve break even in the first month itself. We have planned to open 30 more outlets in the NCR region by 2019-20," Original Ice creams founder Vinay Gaur said.

He added that the company will use the finance for expanding retail distribution into other cities of northern India, including Lucknow, Jaipur and Chandigarh.

Nanotech startup Log 9 raises Rs 3 cr

Bengaluru based nanotechnology startup Log 9 Materials today said it has raised around Rs 3 crore from Metaform Ventures and others.

The pre series - A funding also saw participation from Hemant Luthra (Chairman, Mahindra CIE), GEMS and other angel investors, the company said in a statement.

Log 9 will be using the latest funds to strengthen its commercial operations and patented product portfolio, as well as boosting R&D activities extensively, it added.

Data science expert Nuria Oliver joins Comviva Board .

Mobility solutions provider Comviva today said data science expert Nuria Oliver has joined its advisory board.

Oliver is director of research in data science at Vodafone, chief data scientist at Data-Pop Alliance and chief scientific advisor for the Vodafone Institute, Comviva said in a statement.

"She will work with the Comviva leadership team, providing strategic recommendations on the company's existing portfolio and new initiatives. She will also provide her expertise on strategic alliances and investments," it added.

YourNest Angel Fund-backed SmartQ, a food-tech startup, has acquired Nexus Venture Partners-backed Goodbox’s cafeteria business for an undisclosed sum. SmartQ expects to increase its customer base with this acquisition, while by offloading its cafeteria business, Goodbox wants to focus on its hyperlocal business.

As per sources, the deal size is around $8,00,000 (Rs 5.50 crore) and is a complete cash deal. SmartQ declined to divulge the deal size.

“We have sold our cafeteria business to SmartQ. We wanted to focus on the hyperlocal business and are exiting the cafeteria solution as it is non-core to us now” said Abey Zachariah, CEO, Goodbox. He further said that Goodbox is doing very well in hyperlocal commerce.

Faraway Foods Pvt. Ltd, a Mumbai-based startup that sells healthful snacks for children under The Mumum Co. brand, has raised angel funds worth Rs 3.4 crore ($500,000) from a clutch of wealthy individuals.

The round was led by Nisa Godrej, executive chairman of Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, and Siddharth Parekh and Sumeet Nindrajog, co-founders of private equity firm Paragon Partners, said a press statement.

The company, which sells snacks such as roasted grain puffs, is going to use the capital mainly for expansion in key metros and Tier-I cities. Currently, the products are available at over 100 stores across Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune. A part of the capital will be also used to launch more varieties in healthful snacks category.

The company was launched in September last year by Farah Nathani Menzies and Shreya Lamba. “When we became parents, we looked around for healthful, real, yet fun food to feed our children. We soon realised that many parents were in the same boat, but with very few trustworthy options,” Lamba said on the inspiration behind The Mumum Co.

The Mumum Co. snacks are also available on online channels such as Amazon and FirstCry. The brand is set to expand to over eight more cities by the end of the year.

“We strongly believe The Mumum Co. is well-positioned to capture a significant share of the large, untapped healthful snacking market for kids in India,” said Parekh of Paragon Partners.

The Mumum Co. competes with the likes of Timios brand, which raised an undisclosed amount from the seed fund of packaged food company MTR Foods Pvt. Ltd in May this year.

Several deals have been reported in the healthful snacks category in the recent past.

Last month, Wholesome Habits Pvt. Ltd, which sells healthful snack bars under the brand name Eat Anytime, raised $500,000 (Rs 3.43 crore) in seed funds from early-stage investment firm Sprout Venture Partners and a few wealthy individuals.

Homegrown private equity firm Rabo Equity Advisors also invested money in nutrition bar maker Naturell India.

Last year, Mumbai-based LightSaber Food Ventures Pvt. Ltd, which sells healthful snacks through online and offline channels under the Snackible brand, had raised angel funds worth $175,000.

Singapore-based CCube Angels Network has invested Rs 3.5 crore (around $515,000) in health- and nutri-foods maker Inner Being Wellness Pvt. Ltd, which markets its products under the brand ‘Inner Being’.

In a statement, the Hyderabad-headquartered firm said that it plans to use the fresh capital for product development and expansion in tier-1 cities in India and a few other countries.

Launched in 2012 by Pavan Raj Kanungo and headed by CS Jadhav, Inner Being offers items in the wellness, nutricare, and nutrifood categories. It also owns and operates an online store.

“Inner Being is introducing traditional foods like millets, quinoa and other ancient grains in more contemporary formats that appeal to the modern generation such as breakfast mixes, snack mixes, savory snacks, crackers, cookies and energy bars,” said Jadhav.

The company currently offers several millet-based products such as jowar idli, jowar upma, ragi malt, jowar flakes, millet cookies in Hyderabad and is now in the process of expanding to Delhi and Mumbai this year. It plans to spread to 10 cities in couple of years.

Inner Being is also preparing to launch a range of new mixes such as quinoa porridge, millet & nut cake, gluten-free pizza, and millet pancake which will cater to health-conscious consumers.

Inner Being had last year secured funding from Springforth Investment Managers (SIM), a startup accelerator launched by mid-market focused investment banking firm Springforth Capital Advisors Pvt. Ltd.

“We have a strong belief that nutricereals will be the next smart food and specially millet, being a dry land crop, will improve livelihoods at the rural level and at the same time offer nutritious products to the urban consumers,” said Atim Kabra, director of Frontline Strategy, which manages CCube Angels Network.

CCube Angels Network has been structured as a pledge fund. It had earlier backed companies such as Hyperdata.IO, Simbus Technologies, Omnipresent Retail India Pvt. Ltd, Kloneworld, and Cashe.

Noida-based student housing startup Placio has raised $50,000 in seed funding for its new venture in subscription-based food delivery system.

The company acquired a subscription-based food startup Paco Meals. With this move, it will help Paco Meals with the technology.

The takeover of Paco Meal provides Placio with an edge of talented culinary professionals,  and state-of-the-art facilities to develop menus that meet a multitude of tastes and deliver food beyond expectations.

“Placio intends to transform student living with nutritious and tasty food. With our deep understanding of the student market, we realise that nutrition and food play an important role in transformative living and learning experience. This is part of our vision for making students feels safe, involved and inspired. The good news is that Placio now extends this outlook to even students living in non-Placio properties. Taking over Paco Meals will now make us realize our dreams -- by an unrestricted provision of meals to all students in other student housing also," said Rohit Pateria and Ankush Arora, co-founders of Placio.

Paco Meals focuses on ‘3As appearance, aroma and appetite’ targeting delicious, innovative, sustainable, healthy food options. The company ensures the menu will not be repeated at least for 3 months and also brings the ‘taste of home’ to meals as students are invited to bring their favourite recipes from home, especially those for vegetarian and ethnic dishes.

“We understand the needs of bachelors and students as we have experienced the unappetising meals’ during our stay in college hostels. This unpleasant experience led to my startup in 2016 to provide wholesome and nutritious meals at subsidized prices for bachelors and students who were on a lean budget. Placio today has given me an opportunity to provide the residents and students with hygienic and nutritious meals filled with variety and flavour at all Placio’s housing in Delhi, Greater Noida, Noida Laxmi Nagar, Indore, and Lucknow," said Nitin Joshi and Parul Tusele, co-owners of Paco Meals.

Gulabs, the makers of tasty and delectable hand-crafted Indian snacks has partnered with BigBasket, the leading online food and grocery store.

Under this partnership, customers in Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad will be able to buy Gulabs products through the BigBasket.com website from the comforts of their home. The much sought after items of Gulabs such as Khakhras, Shartbats, Masalas and Pickles will be available at the website from now on.

Commenting on the partnership, Ruchika Gupta, VP – Sales and Marketing of Gulabs said, “BigBasket is a renowned player for online food and grocery shopping and the collaboration between Gulabs and BigBasket will let the consumers across different cities access our products in a jiffy. BigBasket’s strong foothold in these cities and our handcrafted beverages and snacks is a right combination to make this partnership a success.”

Gulabs Khakhras are available in Ajwain, Besan, Methi, Moongadi and Plain flavours. Shartbats come in Jeera, Lemon Ginger, Lemon, Paan, Pudina, Rose, Saunf and Thandai. In Masalas, there is a wide variety that includes Garam Masala, Malagapodi, Rasam masala, Rice podi, Sambar masala, Tea masala powder and Ukali. Tangy Lemon (oil free) flavour is available in Pickles.

Dibz, an online food delivery startup which also serves as an online-to-offline (O2O) platform for discovering restaurant deals, has raised an undisclosed amount in a bridge round of funding from Stellaris Venture Partners and existing investor Benori Ventures, a top company executive told VCCircle.

Vikas Bagaria, founder of toilet hygiene brand PeeSafe, and Rahul Maroli, vice-president and business head at ride-hailing unicorn Ola, also participated in this round. Both individuals had invested in Dibz in the past.

Apart from Stellaris, the other new investors in this round included Ritu Mehrotra, country manager at Booking.com, and Abhivyakti Gulati, founder of handicrafts & household items platform Aakarsshan.

Dibz, operated by Gurugram-based Xpericon Online Solutions Pvt. Ltd, will primarily use the fresh capital to expand to more cities besides consolidating operations in areas where it already has a presence, said co-founder Sonal Pande.

“Though we have a presence in Gurugram and have plans to expand into Delhi and Noida as well, tier-2 and 3 markets are our main focus,” said Pande. “We are already present in Varanasi, Allahabad, Lucknow. We will soon launch our services in Dehradun and Kanpur.”

Dibz hopes to be present in 10 cities by the end of October. Apart from expanding to a few more cities in Uttar Pradesh, venturing into another state is also on its to-do list.

The company had previously raised two rounds of funding – one each in 2016 and 2017 – from Benori Ventures, Bagaria and Maroli besides Amit Parsuramka, president-funds at Lodha Ventures and Partha Sarathi Guha Patra, founder of Asadel Tech.

Founded in November 2015, Dibz had a soft launch in April 2016 in Gurugram before moving into tier-2 markets in the region. Late last year, Pande’s husband Rishabh Kaila came on board as a co-founder .

Dibz’s other founding members include Udit Verma, who looks after verticals that include marketing, operations, customer acquisition and retention. Raunak Pandey handles business development.

The venture started off as a mobile app that enables users to discover curated offers and deals from more than 150 restaurants, hotels and pubs.

Using proprietary algorithms and a predictive analytics platform, Dibz helps its merchants decide on appropriate deals.

However, Dibz has gradually moved away from deal discovery as its primary business and is currently focussing on food delivery. The venture also has plans to develop in-house logistics capabilities.

Dibz claims to have more than 70,000 customers using its platform and has plans to increase this number to about 5 lakh by end of this year as it expands to new markets.

“The idea is to eventually become a unified platform for food. Be it restaurant deals & discounts, table bookings or home deliveries, we want to be the go-to platform for anything to do with food,” she added.

While growing up in Chennai, Samrat Reddy frequented the neighbourhood juice and smoothie shops. “I was not too much of a tea, coffee enthusiast, so I gravitated towards smoothies,” says 33-year-old Reddy.

When he shifted to Australia and then to the UK, Reddy observed that the number of cafes serving coffee were far greater in number compared to shops serving smoothies. “I was sure if smoothies were as readily available as tea and coffee, a large number of people would take to them as a lifestyle choice,” says Reddy.

Looking to fill this gap in the market, inspired by his own experience, and backed by an extensive research that he carried out on the potential of the smoothie market, Reddy decided to give wings to his ideas. He founded Drunken Monkey in December 2015 and operations started in February 2016. The Hyderabad-headquartered company works on a franchise model and has established 60 stores across 16 cities in just about two years.

“I wanted to do to smoothies what Starbucks did to coffee. People want a space for meaningful social connections without restricting themselves to the regular coffee and tea outlets. Smoothies are the new social lubricant in the town,” says Reddy, Founder and MD. To provide patrons a relaxed café-like ambience, Drunken Monkey bars offer free Wi-Fi, board games and comic books too.

The startup has created 170 varieties of smoothies, made from locally-sourced, natural ingredients, without preservatives. The idea is to create a new market and offer a new lifestyle option to people. “Major retail food and beverage chains have stuck to the proven formula of a limited and focused menu. But I wanted to try something different and spoil the customer for choice,” says Reddy.

From fresh fruit shakes to detox smoothies to protein smoothies, the range is wide. The bar even offers a variant it claims helps people recover from ‘a night of partying’. But with variety have come challenges: Managing the logistics of the business has become quite demanding, customers get confused on what to order and take longer time deciding on the order.

Reddy insists that despite the problems, variety helps the business: “We are here for the long haul and our repeat customers continue to be fascinated by how much more they have to explore. Why not give them the freedom to choose?”

Founded with an investment of Rs 4 crore— spread over a year—put in by Reddy and his family, Drunken Monkey generated Rs 29 crore in revenue in 2017-18. The startup aims to increase its stores to 100 in 2018-19 and more than treble its revenue to Rs 100 crore in the current financial year.

“Besides smoothies, our R&D team is working on some food options as well and we will bring them out in August. The pace at which we are growing gives us the confidence to meet our revenue target,” says Reddy.

Winner of the ‘Best Juice Parlour of the Year 2017’ by Restaurant India, the startup’s current challenge is to educate customers on the health benefits of smoothies: “Smoothies are fruits in liquid form and fruits are among the healthiest forms of food. It is exceedingly important to communicate what the product is and why it is good. Drunken Monkey sees itself as a crusader for the smoothie revolution,” says Reddy.

Kroger, has planned to buy Chicago-based meal-kit seller Home Chef for $200 million in order to grab a larger chunk of the online grocery market.

Like other meal-kit firms, Home Chef offers doorstep delivery of recipes to its subscribers. Kroger will pay $200 million for Chicago-based Home Chef, and may pay an additional $500 million over five years provided the sales reach desired milestones. Kroger plans to bring Home Chef kits in its supermarkets.

Competition among meal-kit companies is fierce. Albertsons bought Plated last year, Walmart is expanding its easy-to-make dinners, and meal-kit company Blue Apron started selling some of its kits in Costco stores. Amazon, which bought Whole Foods last year, also sells its own meal kits.

Kroger Co. the 2,800 store brand may close the deal in the second quarter.

Day-to-day grocery delivery startup Milkbasket has raised $7 million in a Series A funding led by Kalaari Capital with participation from its existing investors, BeeNext, a Japanese fund, Unilever Ventures and Blume Ventures.

Commenting on the investment, Vani Kola, MD, Kalaari Capital said, "Strong founding team, focus towards data-based decision making, operational rigour, and incessant focus on customer delight, backed by a large market opportunity in the grocery space culminated into us leading a $7M Series A round into Milkbasket."

Founder and CEO Anant Goel added that the company is going to use the funds for further innovations in supply chain efficiencies and last mile logistics, hiring additional talent and expand into additional territories.

Teruhide Sato, founder of BeeNext, said, "Our investment in Milkbasket provides us with meaningful participation in one of the fastest growing e-grocery markets globally."

In previous raises, the company had raised $3 million in a pre-series A funding from Unilever ventures and others in January 2018.

Having occupied a major chunk of Delhi’s healthy food & drinks Market during 8 months period, NutrioBox has recently started its operations to Gurgaon region.

The F&B startup initiated by two young, energetic minds, Satvik Ahuja & Aayush Yadav, NutrioBox is aimed to capitalize the idea of serving Healthy, Fresh and Tasty food.

“These days being healthy and fit is a new rage and need of the hour. Most of the corporates are also opting for healthy food delivering options as most of them have sitting jobs and less of workout time. Due to erratic work schedules, health concerns are increasing at a very high rate. NutrioBox provides an affordable and expansive platform offering healthy, fresh and great tasting dishes with adaptive and flexible ordering options for people to fulfill their daily healthy diet requirements,” says Satvik Ahuja, Co-founder, NutrioBox.

NutrioBox aims to be an umbrella organization in the health and lifestyle sector with complementing fitness assistance and retail services being very carefully ideated and conceptualized by the team. The brand produces everything in-house from bread, bakery products, cold press juices to finger-licking sauces and much more to deliver rightly on the trust, our customers have had in the brand from the very start.

“We are very excited to see how the Gurgaon audience will respond to our products as we believe this market’s needs are totally different from North West Delhi segment. We are very enthralled to serve the millennial city crowd”, says Aayush Yadav, Co-founder, NutrioBox.

Currently, having a setup of a state-of-the-art base kitchen in Gurgaon and an inviting cozy cafe in Rohini, NutrioBox stands as a trendsetter in the health food segment. The team is continuously striving to deliver an expansive menu with delicious food options to find a healthy spot in everyone’s daily lifestyle. NutrioBox procures 100% farm fresh and organic ingredients to pass on the trust to their customers. Also with a strong focus on dietary regime, NutrioBox has great offerings for Gluten Free, Keto, Paleo and other diets.

The brand aims to influence the F&B market in the country by providing healthy lifestyle food as they are ready to capture the Gurgaon market with retail and corporate collaborations.

                                                                                                                      With Inputs From: Shah Mohsin

Having served lunch tiffins across Mumbai, the Mumbai dabbawalas have planned to set up a start-up business, in the food processing sector.

President Mumbai dabbawalas association Ritesh Andre opened up about the startup business while speaking to the media after a talk at Karnavati University in Ahmedabad, saying that the start-up will supply organic produce.

“We are in the process of developing a business model for our startup. Most dabbawalas come from farming families that grow organic grain and vegetables. The idea of the business is to deliver organic produce through their Six Sigma-certified supply chain. We will use technology for the same purpose. Andre spoke about how dabbawalas are embracing technology,” he said.

“Various IT companies approach us with a number of business models, but it is difficult to implement them with the same efficiency and we continued with our existing model. However, after the implementation of goods and services tax (GST), we are in the process of adopting a financial technology,” he explained.

“We are getting software made to manage funds from their inoperative income, which comes from advertising, training and lecture sessions and even charity. All this income is deposited in their trust,” said Andre while explaining technological incorporation into the startup.

He also said that their team is expanding to cities like Chennai and Pune.

India’s leading impact investor Aavishkaar led by Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group, is set to invest Rs 35 crore into packaged foods startup Kottaram Agro Foods that sells products under the brand ‘Soulfull’.

The investment will be made through its $200 mn Aavishkaar Bharat Fund with the fund having completed its first close at $95 mn late last year.

The round marks Soulfull’s first institutional fund raising exercise. The Bangalore-based firm brings traditional grains such as millets back to the consumer in modern avatars processing grains like Ragi into healthy breakfast and snack options such as flakes, Ragi bites, muesli and ready-to-cook oat-millet meals.

“There are immense opportunities in the packaged foods industry in India which is growing rapidly at 20-25%. The partnership with Aavishkaar will help Soulfull strengthen its product portfolio, accelerate marketing and expand its distribution reach to over 50,000 retail outlets in the next 3 years,” said Prashant Parameswaran, MD & CEO of Kottaram Agro Foods.

This fund raise will also mark the brand’s foray into the beverages category as the company looks forward to launch ‘Smoothix’, its high protein, health drink made out of 12 natural grains.

The Aavishkaar Bharat Fund is targeting early-to-mid stage investment opportunities in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, clean technology, education and financial inclusion.

Zappfresh, the high-quality fresh meat brand run by Gurugram-based DSM Fresh Foods Pvt. Ltd has raised funding of INR 20 crore from Amit Burman, Vice Chairman, Dabur India and SIDBI Venture Capital.

The fresh in-flow of capital will help the company in driving business strategy and expanding supply chain as well as geographical reach.

Since inception in 2015, the company managed to successfully break even in the first eight months after raising modest angel funding from renowned individual investors. Under their mentorship and guidance, the Company scaled rapidly over the next 3 years. The firm has built capabilities to service entire Delhi NCR from its state of the art factory in Gurgaon.

Zappfresh is helping Consumers eat better and is determined to revolutionise the loose/wet meat market by bringing standardisation, transparency and quality across the supply chain - How the meat is sold and bought has changed radically in the last 3 years and will transform in the next decade.  While majority organized players are primarily focused on exports, the domestic market is poised at a healthy 15% annual CAGR.

This funding has laid the foundation to validate this category of business to have immense growth potential and the investing parties including Burman will offer guidance on how to scale up to the next level.

“I see a great potential in the ‘e-market for meat’ and Zappfresh has had an impressive growth story. The business model is innovative and the use of technology in the supply chain management has allowed for the possibility of a sustainable scale up capability. I look forward to be part of this venture and its success," shares Burman.

Adding on the same, Sajit Kumar, Sr. VP, SIDBI Venture Capital says, “Investing in a firm many times translates to investing in an idea with the potential to scale up. This in my mind is the story of Zappfresh. The fresh meat industry is highly fragmented and digitization of the market can also improve the value chain operating system of this industry. Zappfresh’s promise to offer a hassle-free meat buying experience of highest quality is unique and has great potential.”

Talking about the latest round of funding, Deepanshu Manchanda, CEO & Co-Founder, Zappfresh adds, “The company would use the funds to hire people in key departments and increase storage capacity. We are very excited to have Mr. Burman and SIDBI Venture Capital on board believing in our business and supporting our expansion plans. This investment will aid our back-end support along with expansion in newer markets after having laid a strong foundation in Delhi-NCR”

Further adding to this, Shruti Gochhwal, Co-Founder, Zappfresh shares, “Our strength has been the control on quality and speed of delivery. The back-end cold supply chain is aided with strong proprietary technology to control inventory. We are a Consumer driven Company and quality and freshness of the product allows us an 85% repeat rate. We are very pleased with this new financial capability and guidance from industry veterans. This will further improve and expand our offering of farm to fork fresh produce and ensure that every household has access to right quality of meats.”

Zappfresh has laid out its plans to leverage the funds raised for strengthening its technology backbone, expanding its team, bolstering the product and enhancing its community. By augmenting its tech infrastructure, Zappfresh will be able to add more innovative and engaging features to its already popular app and website making the online buying experience of meat much better and customer driven.

Zappfresh has also pioneered the concept of ‘Farm to fork’ via the use of Farm-Tech to optimize their time-to-delivery and costs. They are engaged with a number of farms to ensure absolutely fresh and chemical free products. Their technology helps connect farmers, vendors and retail channels. This is done via real time data and inventory tracking, reducing  time-to- consumer from farm.

By controlling the entire lifecycle of the supply chain, Zappfresh genuinely controls and champions the cause of freshness, health and hygiene. The cold supply chain ensures the right temperature between 0-4 degrees delivered within 24 hours.

Venture debt firm Alteria Capital made its first investment in ready-to-cook food brand Fingerlix in a quick succession after the first close of its maiden Rs 1,000 crore fund.

The Mumbai-based startup, which is backed by Accel Partners and Zephyr Peacock, raised Rs 8.5 crore in its first debt financing exercise.

With this funding, the total capital raised by Fingerlix reached Rs 71.5 crore, including equity and debt. Fingerlix will use the proceeds to build production capacity for its existing presence in the country’s top six cities.

The firm, which has a kitchen in Mumbai, will build one in Delhi immediately and follow it up with another for the southern market.

“The investment in Fingerlix represents the ideal type of transaction that we will seek out of a high-quality business with the potential to generate high returns, being driven by a great team and strong investor support," shares Ajay Hattangdi, Managing Partner, Alteria Capital.

Fingerlix will use a portion of the fund to also boost its distribution channel and increase presence in retail and other distribution outlets.

As the consumer brand and FMCG play in the Indian startup ecosystem grows, both equity and debt investors are looking to build significant portfolios in the space.

Commenting on the same, Vinod Murali, also a managing partner at the venture debt firm adds, “India has been starved of a lot of good quality brands. While we are sector agnostic, the consumer pipeline for Alteria Capital is quite strong and will be evident in the deals to come.”

The 2014 established food-tech startup SmartQ has raised $1 million from a group of Dubai-based investors. The round also saw participation from existing investor YourNest.

The company offers digital cafeteria solutions to eliminate queues, minimise wait time and offer a better experience. The platform includes mobile application, automated billing kiosks, centralised billing system, NFC (near field communication) prepaid cards, POS software etc. The company clocks over 1 lakh transactions everyday and has been growing 50% month-on-month. It counts companies like Shell and Epsilon amongst its clients.

Krishna Wage,Founder and CEO, SmartQ, said, “The funding has enabled us to focus on the next level of strategic growth while also scaling up on technology, talent and brand building in full swing. SmartQ intends to use the raised funds to bolster its efforts in growing business outside India.”

Anvita Varshney former MD of Lazada group, has joined the board of advisors at SmartQ, as part of the funding.

Godrej Nature’s Basket (GNB), India’s pioneering food chain, launched a brand new store in Malad today. The new store is a reflection of the brand’s promise of being the go-to place for the customer’s ‘Daily Food Delights’.

Located at Inorbit mall in Malad and spread across 1,500 sq. ft., the store brings alive the freshest and finest food brand philosophy with its experiential and contemporary retail design. The store highlights some if its freshest categories including Fruits & Vegetables, Dairy, Bakery, Meat, Cheese, among others that is sure to make one’s shopping a delightful experience.

Speaking on the launch of the store in Malad, Avani Davda, Managing Director, Godrej Nature’s Basket, said, “We are excited to bring Godrej Nature’s Basket to the bustling neighbourhood of Malad. With our recent launches in Worli, Chembur, and now Malad, we are on our path of a thoughtful expansion plan. Our new brand promise manifests itself across various levels and will help us offer a more wholesome experience to our customers. We are excited to launch 5 to 6 more stores by the end of this financial year in the city and are looking at scaling up our footprint to 60 to 70 stores by FY21.”

Genie Solutions Pvt Ltd the Chennai-based hyperlocal delivery and logistics startup has acquired food delivery firm Dinein.in an all-stock deal, a company statement said.

As per the Statement explaining the deal, Genie will acquire the Dinein brand, the 25-member team, the delivery fleet; restaurant partner contracts, technology and the startup’s call centre business. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The startup is also looking to strengthen its technological infrastructure before going to other markets and increasing its presence in Chennai.

Dinein which is run by Easy Deli Logistics Pvt Ltd, was started in late 2012 by Vinit Chordia and worked with more than 250 restaurants in Chennai to deliver food to customers. The startup claims that it was fulfilling about 6,000 orders a month in 2017.

Mithun Sacheti, founder of online jewellery firm Caratlane.com (now a part of Tata’s Tanishq) who was an investor with Dinein.in will serve as a mentor for Genie.

Chordia in a statement said, “We see this as a great opportunity to grow and offer great experience to customers. With a focused food delivery service and a pureplay logistics platform coming together, creating a wholesome service that can help users get anything they need at their doorstep.”

Founded by Rakesh Mani, Sreekesh Krishnan and Parth Shah, Genie is a bike-based, tech-enabled logistics platform which serves both consumers and businesses in Chennai.

Krishnan, who is a graduate in electronics engineering, has co-founded other startups and has held stints in marketing prior to setting up Genie. Mani, who oversees operations and human resources at Genie, previously led social development projects in education, environment and women empowerment. Shah, a chartered accountant by profession, has previously worked at Deloitte and also co-founded a startup, Instadel.

The startup said, its current focus is to grow and consolidate business partnerships. It currently claims to do more than 10,000 orders with a fleet of over 100 people.

Run by Genie Solutions Private Limited, the firm which was founded in early 2015, had suspended operations on 31 March 2017 due to lack of funds. However, the startup resumed business in May 2017 after it raised $250,000 from a group of unnamed high net-worth individuals.

Online food delivery start-up Swiggy said it plans to start ramping up its advertisement business next year, targeting to generate as much as a fourth of its overall revenue from that segment by 2020. The company is planning to start product development for the business by the start of 2018, where it will be looking to monetise relationships further with restaurant partners.

SriHarsha Majety, Co founder, Swiggy said “We are already making good amount of ad revenue without making product suites that we wanted. It will be huge part of our plan and important part of our revenue mix. Ad business would form 20-25% of its net revenue by 2020. Food tech moment for India has arrived again. There is a lot of interest in strong execution.  Swiggy continues to get a lot of interest from people who want to partner with us. We continue to remain an independent company.

The move is significant as Swiggy makes most of its revenue from the delivery business, even as Gurgaon rival Zomato gets much of the revenue through its profitable advertising business.

Out of the $49-million revenue that Zomato made in fiscal 2017, $38 million came from advertisement, compared with just $9 million from food delivery. A significant part of Zomato’s advertisement revenue comes from overseas, where it is present in 24 countries with about 1.4 million restaurants listed on the platform.

Swiggy also announced the launch of Swiggy Access, whereby it will bring delivery-only branch of partner restaurants to new localities in various cities.

It is starting the first Swiggy Access kitchen in Bengaluru’s Marathahalli area, which will serve from Leon Grill, Keventers, Punjabi Rasoi and its private brands, House of Dabbas and The Bowl Company.

The Bengaluru-based company, which is at the centre of consolidation talks with players like Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm and Zomato, said it plans to continue as an independent company while declining to comment on specific conversations.

Food tech start-up Freshmenu has opened its first front facing kitchen at Bangalore airport as it looking to double down on expanding its order base. With this, Freshmenu has now 35 cloud kitchens across Bangalore Mumbai and NCR and is looking to increase the count to 40-42 in the next four months.

Rashmi Daga, CEO of Freshmenu said "In the last 6 months, we have doubled our footprint in Mumbai, opened a lot more kitchens. In this last month alone, we have opened 5 kitchens including the one at the Bangalore airport, Claims to have enough money in the bank to continue (investing for) capex behind the kitchens. With an increase in kitchens, Freshmenu is targeting a 2x growth in revenues even as it chalks out a path to profitability. Trajectory to profitability is very strong. We will be profitable at the net level within 1 year".

Daga also stated that, however, he has no plan of opening more front-facing kitchens with the newer kitchens focussed only on the existing 3 cities. Lightspeed Venture Partners backed firm currently clocks 13,000 orders per day with an average order value at Rs 325, just shy of the Naspers backed Swiggy which clocks orders worth Rs 350 on an average.

Michelin recommended Chef Gautam Chaudhary has acquired Gurugram based food start up, World in a box.

While details of the deals were not revealed, it is supposedly a cash plus equity deal.

“We are delighted by this association, Chef brings with him over 20 years of culinary and management experience” said Nitish Jha, Founder of World in a box, who will now be moving to much larger role of managing operations and marketing at Demiurgic group.

World in a box has done exceptionally well in last two years in gurugram food market. From winning the Prestigious best online food delivery award to the pioneer of “Make your own meal”, which gives a customer the choice of customizing his meals, they have made a niche clientele for themselves.

Demiurgic Hospitality is coming with their second brand “Deseez:, a boutique North Indian delivery kitchen by 3^rd week of September. The group has lot of other interesting plans, details for which were untold right now.” We plan to come up with multiple food brands under our parent umbrella, catering to most of the food universe” said Gautam Chaudhary, founder of Demiurgic group who also specializes in progressive Indian Cuisine. 

Mumbai based food startup, Wegan Foods has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from UAE Princess, Her Highness Sheikha Arwa Al Qassimi, a member of the royal family of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah.

The company also plans to launch a range of healthy, dairy-free, pantry staples for the growing vegan community in India.

Kinjal Darukhanawala, Founder & CEO, Wegan Foods said, "We are creating a range of products that are delicious and dairy free. We aim to be an ethical and transparent brand, which will source the highest quality ingredients. Each product will be crafted in what we call ‘happy kitchens’ and not in labs or factories. Being a passionate Vegan and health enthusiast myself, I realised that there are very few local vegan pantry staples available in India. Our products will address a growing market of vegans and people who may want to choose a healthier dietary lifestyle."

The first product, Dairy Free Cheese, is all set to launch in October 2017. The Vegan Cheese is soy free, gluten free and suitable for Jains. Vegans or lactose intolerant people have to no longer worry about missing out on their favourite classics. All cheesy favourites can now be guilt free.

Darukhanawala added, "The first product development took close to six months. The idea is not just being vegan, but also carrying a line of products that are delicious and nutritious for all age groups to devour. A lot of people have preconceived notions about vegan food; they think it is boring, tasteless and far from original taste and flavour. Our brand plans to banish these notions."

The funding will be used for scaling the commercial kitchen, inventory & brand building. It will initially be launched in Mumbai via modern trade and specific food delivery app platforms. In addition, the company also aims to set up a strong B2B network with restaurants, hotels, catering companies, coffee shop chains and airlines.

Her Highness Sheikha Arwa Al Qassimi, said, "I have invested in Wegan Foods in my personal capacity. I was impressed with the fact that Kinjal plans to have a 90% women workforce by hiring from organizations that groom and empower women from disadvantaged backgrounds. This is the biggest motivation for me. Globally, I have been an advocate for women’s rights and see this investment as a step in that direction."

The startup boom in 2015, saw mobile technology emerge as a promising business model, may have encouraged many to jump onto the digital bandwagon. But many segments in this space in Hyderabad are now marked by dwindling number of entrants and slowing fund inflows.

The reason: an ecosystem that has been filled to the brim with thousands of technology-enabled startups. A classic example, say experts, is the food technology segment, where startups struggle to compete with major players like Swiggy and Zomato.

Sanjay Enishetty, Managing Director, Hyderabad-based investor group 50K Ventures, said, "As the food technology segment appeared to be a lucrative market in 2015, too many startups entered this market. While a few managed to survive or get acquired, a majority of them had to exit the market after exhausting all their funds. This is because the startups had not built a sustainable business model or a viable product, which could survive in such a crowded market,

Sample this: While the country had nearly 258 startups working in the food order and delivery space in 2014, this number jumped to 610 in 2015.In 2016, the figure dropped to 138. The scenario is no different in Hyderabad where the number of startups in this space dropped from 46 in 2014 to a mere 4 in 2016.

Yuv Raj, founder, First Meal, said, "It has become very hard for a startup to survive in the food technology space. There are far too many players in the market and funding has also seen a lull since 2015. Without a sustainable business model, startups will only fade away in a market dominated by Swiggy and Foodpanda. This is why in spite of the plans I had, to expand my startup, agreeing to an acquisition was the smart thing to do."

According to Enishetty , many startups working in the 'edu tech' space have also had to shut down operations, after raising an initial round of funding. The number of startups entering this market in Hyderabad has also fallen from 10 in 2015 to 6 in 2014. A few point to this falling number, of new players in the market, as one of the first signs of a maturing startup ecosystem.

An insider said, "A significant increase in the number of startups followed by a sudden dip is a clear sign of maturing markets. The leading competitors start to command the major share of the market and any further change, if at all, will be gradual. The entry barrier gets higher and early stage investments dry up. New ventures are always better off focusing on sectors which are still nascent."