Food-tech Startup InnerChef Raises $6.5 Million Funding

InnerChef India Pvt Ltd, the parent company of cloud kitchen startup Innerchef, has raised $6.5 million i.e., INR 43 crore in a Pre-Series B round funding in order to expand its operations pan India. The financing round was led by Das Capital and Taizo Son’s Mistletoe Inc. The company intends to use the funds for brand building and developing the subscription-based food delivery model in the country.

Mistletoe is owned and funded by serial entrepreneur Taizo Son, the brother of Masayoshi Son, Founder and CEO of Japanese investment giant SoftBank.

Rajesh Sawhney, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, InnerChef said, “The fresh funding will be used to strengthen the brand portfolio. Healthie, for instance, has become a category-defining brand in 2018. We are also using the fresh round of funding to further strengthen our shared kitchen platform across India.”

Speaking about the expansion plans, Swahney said, “In the next few years, the delivery segment will grow the fastest in India as we see the strongest growth in that space. Secondly, we have to build 10 new-age brands in this segment.”

Innerchef, the cloud kitchen platform was founded by Rajesh Sawhney, Sanjeev Singhal and Bal Dighent in 2015. Its headquarter is in Gurugram. InnerChef, initially, started with delivering raw ingredient boxes where the consumers could make dishes on their own. After realizing that Indian consumers “were not ready for the box model”, the platform pivoted to cloud kitchen concept.

At present, InnerChef operates in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, and ships over 100,000 meals per month.