FoodTech Startup Pluckk Appoints Mamaearth’s Market Place Head- Kunwarjeet Grover as Head of Growth

Pluckk, a leading food-tech-direct to consumer company, focussed on farm to fork fresh produce, today announced the appointment of Mr. Kunwarjeet Grover as Head of Growth. Mr. Grover will be based in Bangalore and will report directly to Mr. Pratik Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder of Pluckk. In his new role, he will be responsible to drive revenue across online and offline channels, lead sales and growth teams.

Mr. Grover joins PLUCKK from the fast growing direct-to-consumer company Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd (parent company of Mamaearth) where he was responsible for building and leading the P/L of marketplace business for brands like Mamearth, The Derma Co. & Bblunt. Prior to Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd he was also associated with renowned companies such as Himalaya Herbal Healthcare, CavinKare, Phillips Lightning, and Havells India Ltd. With over 12 years of experience he specializes in P/L management, Business Development, Online Vendor Management, and Business Planning/Implementation. He holds an MBA degree from IBS Hyderabad.

Commenting on the appointment, Mr. Pratik Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder, Pluckk, said, “We welcome Kunwarjeet to the Pluckk family. Kunwarjeet’s deep understanding of D2C and FMCG is something that Pluckk will immensely benefit from. His experience will enable us to sharpen our product portfolio and distribution into online and offline channels including ecommerce, modern trade and general trade in the fresh category. His addition to the core team will help us double down on revenue and profitability across Pluckk’s online & offline presence”.

Speaking on the occasion, Kunwarjeet Grover said, "I am honoured and excited to join Pluckk as Head of Growth. The fresh produce industry is the fastest growing and largest penetrated category. Pluckk is an emerging leader and with the right value proposition we aim to create an industry first story in the fresh food tech category. I look forward to working closely with the talented teams at Pluckk and leveraging innovative strategies to drive remarkable outcomes and propel the company to new heights”.

About Pluckk

Pluckk is a B2C fresh produce food tech platform founded in July 2021. Co-founded by Pratik Gupta and seed-funded by Exponentia Ventures (EV) with current operations in Mumbai, Bengaluru & Delhi. It is the first of its kind digital lifestyle-oriented fresh food brand in Fruits and Vegetables (F&V) space. Pluckk provides a platform to facilitate the ‘farm-to-table’ concept. It offers a large variety of 300+ special selections of gourmet fruits, vegetables & meal kits directly to end consumers, doing away with mediators. The platform has already on boarded 1000 plus farmers across Mumbai, Bengaluru & Delhi & is now available on platform such as Amazon, Swiggy, Dunzo & Zepto.

FoodTech Start-Up Pluckk Acquires Meal Kit Brand KOOK for $1.3 Mn Value of Cash and Equity Combined

Deal valued at $ 1.3 Mn

To enter the booming $15 billion global meal kit market

Pluckk, a first-of-its-kind digital lifestyle-oriented fresh food brand in the Fruits and Vegetables (F&V) space, has announced the acquisition of KOOK, an Indian food-tech startup that offers a range of DIY Meal Kits for consumers, at a deal value of $ 1.3 Mn through a combination of cash and equity.

KOOK offers DIY Meal Kits that make cooking easier for everyone by providing pre-portioned ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes. With a reputation for catering to various dietary preferences and cooking skills, KOOK has a strong presence in Delhi and Mumbai.

Pluckk's acquisition of KOOK is a strategic move to tap into the enormous growth potential of the meal kit market and presents significant opportunities for Pluckk. The global market is projected to grow from 15.21 USD Billion in 2021 to 31.5 USD Billion by 2025 , representing a 20% CAGR. With KOOK's strong target audience and expertise in meal kits, Pluckk is well-positioned to deliver the best quality fresh food to its end consumers in this thriving $15 billion market.

Speaking on the acquisition, Nelson D’Souza, CFO, Pluckk, said, "We are thrilled to welcome the young team of KOOK to the Pluckk family. Their demonstrated expertise in building a world-class product in the meal-kit space, coupled with our commitment to provide safe and chemical-free produce, will enable us to offer an unbeatable farm-to-fork experience to customers across India. In the post-covid world, Ready to Cook Meal Kits have emerged as a sought after cooking trend with customers preferring to control the quality of food consumed while having more dining options which we look to leverage by offering this differentiator to our customer experience. Further, from a unit economics point-of-view, this is a welcome addition to our portfolio and will help us accelerate our journey towards building a profitable business."

KOOK, Co-Founder, Arpitta Jerath said, "We are thrilled to be joining forces with Pluckk and becoming a part of their innovative fresh food ecosystem. The synergies between what we are building at KOOK and the lifestyle first approach that Pluckk brings to the Fruits & Vegetables category seems very compelling. Our range of DIY Meal Kits, combined with Pluckk's digital lifestyle-oriented brand, will allow us to offer even more convenience and healthy meal options to the discerning customers in the ever-growing markets Pluckk operates in."

KOOK, Co-Founder, Nikhil Thatai said, "At KOOK, we are committed to making cooking easy and convenient for our customers and we are excited to bring our range of DIY Meal Kits to even more people through our synergies with Pluckk. We estimate the market size of meal kits to be around 1B USD by 2025 in India and we look forward to leveraging our expertise in meal kit delivery to offer healthy and delicious meal options to cater to this booming market in our country."

Pluckk offers a farm-to-fork product line for health-conscious consumers, featuring safe and chemical-free produce through their ozone wash and traceability program. Customers can shop based on food trends such as gut health, heart health, and diabetes, and access a wide range of products beyond the basics, including organic and exotic produce. Pluckk's products are available on their own D2C platform and partner platforms like Blinkit, Swiggy, Zepto, Dunzo, and Amazon.

About Pluckk

Pluckk is a B2C fresh produce food tech supply chain platform founded in July 2021. Co-founded by Pratik Gupta and seed-funded by Exponentia Ventures (EV) with current operations in Bangalore & Mumbai. It is the first of its kind digital lifestyle-oriented fresh food brand in Fruits and Vegetables (F&V) space. Pluckk provides a platform to facilitate the ‘farm-to-table’ concept. It offers a large variety of special selections of gourmet fruits and vegetables directly to end consumers, doing away with mediators. The platform has already on boarded 500 plus farmers across Mumbai and Bengaluru and plans to reach the 1,000 mark in the next 6 months. 

About KOOK

KOOK is a DIY Meal Kit Startup founded by ISB Alumni Nikhil and Arpitta in 2020. With presence across Delhi & Mumbai, KOOK was started with a mission to make at home cooking hassle free and easy. KOOK aims to make the task of cooking wholesome good quality meals less daunting with ready to cook kits that come with semi prepped and pre-portioned ingredients that are freshly sourced, hygienically packed and have ZERO preservatives. KOOK Meal kits enable people to make a perfect meal from start to finish at home in under 20 minutes.

12 Food Tech Startups from Around the World Join the ProVeg Incubator

The 10th cohort focuses on high-impact technologies, regions, and solutions

Twelve pioneering, impact-driven startups, hailing from Thailand, Singapore, China, Israel, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, South Africa, the Netherlands, Ireland, the UK and the US, have joined the ProVeg Incubator for the 10th edition of its world-renowned accelerator programme for plant-based, fermentation and cultured food startups.

The team were looking for the most impactful food tech and biotech as well as ingredients solutions to speed up the transformation of our unsustainable food system. Here’s who they found.

The 12 startups joining Cohort 10:

Be Better My Friend (Netherlands, 2021): Founders Marikevan Beurden and Joost Lindeman have developed plant-based butter and cream alternatives for professional pastry chefs. Find out more at bebettermyfriend.com

FoodSquared (UK, 2021): Founders Frankie Fox, Wesley Yland, and Abi Aspen Glencross are using a ‘patent pending’ process and proprietary ingredient formulations to create next-generation plant-based shellfish, starting with plant-based shrimp. Find out more at foodsquared.earth

Ergo Bioscience (Argentina/US, 2020): Founders Alejandro Barbarini, Maria Laura Garcia, and Eduardo Peña develop complex animal proteins by plant cell precision fermentation. Find out more at ergofoods.com

Plant Origin (Thailand, 2022): Founders Pasakorn Niratbhand, Patarachet Soodsaguan, Panu Srisawasdi, and Akkasit Jongjareonrak are developing plant-based protein alternatives using hydrolyzed rice bran protein, which is extracted from byproducts of rice production. Find out more at plantorigin.co

Fattastic Technologies (Singapore, 2022): Founder Satnam Singh is developing a plant-based fat alternative that improves the sensory properties of alternative protein products with its innovative ‘oil structuring technology’. Find out more at fattastic.tech

Propel Foods (Mexico, 2022): Founders Joel González Gómez and Jayat Elena González Palomeras are using artificial intelligence to produce frozen, ready-to-eat, plant-based meals including tacos, burgers and chorizos with a strong emphasis on health and nutrition. Find out more at propelfoods.com

Algrow Biosciences (Singapore, 2022): Founders Sudhir Kumar Pasupuleti and Sukhi Wei create sustainable and nutritious protein using microalgae. Their clean-label process for removing chlorophyll results in a taste- and colour-neutral protein-rich biomass with a complete amino acid profile, packed with omega-3, iron, and potassium, that can be produced at a cost that is 85% compared to its competitors. Find out more at algrowbiosciences.co

MycoSure (South Africa, 2021): Founders Charles Reed, Greg Brown and James McLaren are developing mycelium-based fermentation technology to provide nutraceutical ingredients in a scalable and cost-effective way. Their B2B platform strategy is to supply branded ingredients to the food and beverage sector. Find out more at mycosure.co.za

StarPlants (China/Israel, 2021): Founders Eran Dubovi and Udi Baran run a plant-based food company specialising in chick pea milk and snacks. The company, which is based in China and led by owners based in Israel, develops, manufactures, and sells the products. Find out more at starplants.com.cn

SomaTech (Ireland, 2023): Founders Dr Tony Martin Callaghan and Dr Alejandra Omarini have developed a scalable solid state fermentation platform that uses fungal mycelium to upcycle locally produced side streams, creating affordable, functional protein-rich food ingredients. (No website currently).

Sticta Biologicals (Chile, 2021): Founders Eduardo Agosin and Andres Ariztia have developed a proprietary microbial platform that uses precision fermentation to produce proteins and natural biochemicals for the food, agriculture and wellbeing sectors. The company’s SmartSerumTM, all-in–one, customised serum-free culture media includes proteins and ingredients for the mass production of cultivated meats. Find out more at sticta.com

Bygg Foods (US, 2022): Founder Smári Ásmundsson is developing a product line including plant-based milk and vegan protein powder, created from upcycled ingredients. Bygg aims to cater to millennials and Gen Z consumers who prioritise health and environmental consciousness. The company aims to expand to a range of plant-based food and beverage categories. Find out more at byggfoods.com

Cohort 10 in Numbers

• 12 startups under 3 years old
• 4 startups from the Asia-Pacific region
• 4 startups from North and Latin America
• 3 startups from Europe
• 1 startup from Africa
• 7 are ingredients companies
• 5 are consumer products companies
• 5 are precision and biomass fermentation companies

Applicants came from 42 countries around the world. Startups in Asia and Europe led the charge, with 29% based in Asia, 29% in Europe, 21% in North America (including Mexico), 12% in South America, 4% in Africa, and 3% in the Australian continent.

Trends we’re seeing:

Next-gen nutrition. The ultra-processed argument against many plant-based products is a hot topic. By applying AI, upcycling side streams of the food industry and leveraging new ingredients, the startups in our cohort aim to provide clean label, nutritious, healthy and less-processed solutions, as this is top of the list for consumers, food producers, retail and food service.

The rise of Asia Pacific. We’re increasingly speaking to startups in this region, echoing the recent findings by the Good Food Institute APAC that investments into alternative protein companies in Asia Pacific rose by 43% from 2021 to 2022 in all three pillars of alternative proteins: plant-based, fermentation, and cultivated.

Precision and biomass fermentation (mycelium). The trend to leverage different fermentation approaches continues to be strong. We’re seeing more startups developing products and enabling tech in these areas. The offerings are promising in terms of impact, potential scale-up and sustainability.

Precision fermentation platforms as enablers. This is an exciting area and we’re seeing more startups exploring it for creating cultivated meat mediums, and plant cell cultivation as a new way to express complex animal proteins like caseins and myoglobin.

Innovative plant-based solutions to replace conventional ingredients. We’re seeing new and promising alternatives coming through, combined with B2B models, including butter, egg, milk and seafood, both for food producers and food service.

Tough investment landscape. Startups are finding it harder to find lead investors and close rounds, while rounds and due diligence are taking longer. Many investors are less active and are focusing on portfolio support.

About the ProVeg Incubator

The ProVeg Incubator is designed to support mission-driven startups working on plant-based, fermentation, and cultured-food products and technologies. Startups must have the potential to remove animals from the global food system, either by providing alternatives or with supporting technology.

The ProVeg Incubator, which is based in Berlin, Germany, is particularly interested in startups developing egg, seafood, and chicken alternatives, as well as other meat and dairy alternatives, ingredients and technologies that can help substitute animal-derived staple products on a mass scale. Focus areas include functional ingredients, precision fermentation and biomass fermentation, cell-cultivation and molecular farming, along with the enabling tech, processes, and platforms.

What does the programme include?

Startups that join the ProVeg Incubator are supported with a tailor-made accelerator programme, one-on-one expert mentoring, access to the Incubator’s extensive networks of industry contacts, and up to €300,000 in funding and in-kind services.

Since its launch in late 2018, the ProVeg Incubator has supported more than 80 startups from around the world, including Remilk, Better Nature, Vly Foods, Bosque Foods, Haofood, Omni, Kern Tec, Greenwise, Mushlabs, Formo, Hooked, the Live Green Company, and the Nu Company.

Collectively, the ProVeg Incubator’s alumni have raised more than €250 million, with products stocked in over 15,000 stores worldwide.

Startups that join have access to a global network including mentors such as Lisa Feria (Stray Dog Capital), Mark Post (Mosa Meat), Ryan Bethencourt (Wild Earth), David Benzaquen (Mission: Plant LLC), David Brandes (Peace of Meat), Frank Cordesmeyer (Good Seed Ventures), among many others.

ProVeg Incubator facts and figures

• Number 1: ProVeg Incubator was the first incubator for plant-based and cultured food startups when it began in 2018 and continues to lead the charge
• Mission-driven: ProVeg Incubator is part of the not-for-profit food awareness organisation ProVeg International https://proveg.com/
• Not-for-profit: All funds are reinvested in ProVeg’s overarching mission to reduce global animal consumption by 50% by the year 2040.
• Unique: ProVeg Incubator is the only accelerator programme with a mission to take animals out of the value chain, with all potential gains reinvested in charitable work
• Focused on startups: The team has screened more than 1,000 startups and worked with more than 80 alumni companies from all over the world through its programmes

More than the sum of its parts: ProVeg Incubator is not just an accelerator, or an investor, but a global organisation with partners across industries, spanning both commercial and Not-for-profit. 

FoodTech Venture Pluckk Becomes India’s 1st Certified ‘Plastic Neutral Brand’ in Fruits & Vegetable (FnV) Space

Resolves to collect 6,000 kgs of plastic waste from getting into landfills & oceans

Pluckk - an environment friendly food-tech venture today announced being certified as a Plastic Neutral Brand. Pluckk which is one of the fastest growing D2C brands in the Fruits & Vegetables (FnV) category, will now recycle more plastic than it consumes thereby becoming the first Indian company in FnV space to receive this certification.

This commitment towards being plastic positive – is endorsed by ReCircle, which is a resource recovery enterprise working towards a sustainable future, preventing resources from entering landfills and ocean by recycling, repurposing and reusing and directing them back into the economy with a vision of ethical circularity.

Commenting on the certification Pratik Gupta, CEO, Pluckk said, “Of the seven billion tonnes of plastic waste that is generated globally, only 10% gets recycled. This leaves a huge scope for companies to act responsibly and work towards bridging that gap. We at Pluckk are delighted to be the 1st F&V brand to be certified as “Plastic Neutral”. With this move, we aim to recycle much more plastic than we consume for our daily packaging. We are keenly aware of the plastic distributed with orders and want to adopt a 360-degree plan to reduce our plastic consumption in our endeavour to protect the environment.”

“ReCircle is happy to announce that Pluckk, a nature-conscious brand has joined our fight against plastic waste, and they will help us to divert it from going into landfills and oceans. So let’s collaborate and ‘Pluckk’ out waste from nature,” said Rahul Nainani, Co-founder and CEO, ReCircle.

Pluckk’s Plastic-Return initiative, also allows customers to return the plastic packaging of their orders during the delivery of their next order. Furthermore, customers in Mumbai can also organise pick-ups of plastic waste using ReCircle’s Plastic Collection facilities.

Taking this association with ReCircle one step further, Pluckk aims to collect 6000 kgs of plastic waste from getting into landfills, oceans & dumping grounds. The company is also looking at more innovative solutions to go plastic-free.

Being one of the fastest growing D2C brands in the Fruits & Vegetables (FnV) category with a wide range of 250+ products of essentials, exotics and pan ready meal kits, Pluckk becomes the first Indian company in the Fruits & Vegetables (FnV) space to receive this certification.

The Pluckk app recently crossed over 100K customers with a strong network of 1000+ farmers. It provides customers with highest quality - safe, hygienic, ozone washed, traceable, ethically grown farm to fork fresh food options in formats which address their lifestyle needs.

About Pluckk

Pluckk is a B2C fresh produce food tech supply chain platform founded in July 2021. Co-founded by Pratik Gupta and seed-funded by Exponentia Ventures (EV) with current operations in Bangalore & Mumbai. It is the first of its kind digital lifestyle-oriented fresh food brand in Fruits and Vegetables (F&V) space. Pluckk provides a platform to facilitate the ‘farm-to-table’ concept. It offers a large variety of special selections of gourmet fruits and vegetables directly to end consumers, doing away with mediators. The platform has already on boarded 1000 plus farmers across Mumbai and Bengaluru.

FoodTech Venture Pluckk Records ~$5 Mn Annualised Revenue Run Rate in October 2022

• Crossed 100k customers since the launch in January 2022
• Work with 1000+ farmers directly to sources fresh veggies and fruits
• Fruits & vegetables are ozone washed and sourced responsibly with full traceability
• Forged alliances with biggies like Amazon, Dunzo, Reliance Signature et al

Pluckk, a fresh produce food-tech venture owned by Fruveggie Tech Pvt Ltd. has clocked record revenues of USD 5mn in a short span of time since its launch in January 2022, making it one of the fastest growing D2C brands in the Fruits & Vegetables (FnV) category. The revenue growth was driven by the launch of the PLUCKK app in April which contributed to its stellar growth with 100k downloads in just 3 months.

The company also announced its expansion in Delhi NCR, where the pilot has already started in Gurugram and future plans include expansion in Pune and Hyderabad by end of FY 23-24.

Tie-ups with major ecommerce platforms like Amazon, Dunzo and Swiggy, Zepto and Reliance signature stores have been a major driving factor to the growth of this young start-up.

Pluckk has currently crossed over 100K customers, works with a network of 1000+ farmers & offers a range of 250+ products of essentials, exotics and pan ready meal kits. The company has plans to raise funding in the next 12 to 18 months and enter into newer geographies.

Mr. Pratik Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder of Pluckk says “The urban Indian upwardly mobile consumer today looks at health & lifestyle benefits in everything they consume. Around one third of the online fresh produce market is going to be driven by lifestyle oriented brands in the next 5 years. We at Pluckk identified this fast growing unaddressed white space and aim to provide customers with highest quality fresh food options in formats which will complement their lifestyle needs. We are extremely delighted to witness the successful response we have received by growing from USD 1m to 5m in just around nine months of our operations”.

The main differentiator of Pluckk is providing customers with highest quality - safe, hygienic, ozone washed, traceable, ethically grown farm to fork fresh food options in formats which solve for lifestyle needs.

The company which recently raised USD 5 million seed capital funding from Exponentia Ventures has put this capital to good use by positioning itself as a one-stop differentiated brand in the F&V space.

Pluckk’s proposition is centered on global food trends ranging from vegan, carb alternatives, gut health, immunity to plant-forward eating to prevent diabetes and mental health. The platform offers new and unique categories making it a one stop most reliable destination for FnV including meal kits, low carb meal replacements, cuts, salads, hydroponic, organic, stuffed etc.

About Pluckk

Pluckk is a B2C fresh produce food tech supply chain platform founded in July 2021. Co-founded by Pratik Gupta and seed-funded by Exponentia Ventures (EV) with current operations in Bangalore & Mumbai. It is the first of its kind digital lifestyle-oriented fresh food brand in Fruits and Vegetables (F&V) space. Pluckk provides a platform to facilitate the ‘farm-to-table’ concept. It offers a large variety of special selections of gourmet fruits and vegetables directly to end consumers, doing away with mediators. The platform has already on boarded 100 plus farmers across Mumbai and Bengaluru and plans to reach the 1,000 mark by March 2022.

Pluckk CEO and Co-founder Pratik is an IMT Ghaziabad alumnus and has previously built a leading online grocery venture Wadi.com, which was later acquired by MAF (Carrefour).

To Wrap Fruits with Increased Shelf-Life, Scientist Develops Graphene Oxide-based Wrapper that is Non-Toxic and Reusable

Representational Image

Indian scientists have developed a composite paper made of carbon (graphene oxide) loaded with preservatives that can be used as wrappers to help extend shelf life of fruits. Unlike the present preservative dipping technology, where the preservatives are adsorbed by the fruit, causing chronic toxicity to the consumers; here preservatives the wrapper releases the preservative only when needed. The wrapper can be reused, which is not possible with the present technology.

Fruits are highly perishable, hence 50% of fruits produced are wasted, causing huge losses. Conventional preservation relies on coating the preservative with the resin, wax, or edible polymer, which may cause chronic health problems.

In order to address this problem, a team of researchers led by Dr. P. S Vijayakumar from Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Mohali, an Autonomous Institute of the Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India looked for an alternative, that could be generated from waste and would not lead to adsorption of preservatives in the fruit.

The activated graphene oxide-loaded molecules were then loaded with preservatives. This high preservative-loaded graphene oxide, when cast into a paper used for fruit wrapping, ensures that the fruit is not loaded with toxic preservatives. But when the fruit over-ripens or gets infested by pathogens, the acidity increases by the secretion of acids, critic, and oxalic acids trigger the release of the preservatives for the preservation of the fruit. Otherwise, the preservative stays with the carbon wrapper. In the fruit dipping method, the preservative will be lost along with the fruit, whereas the wrapper can be re-used after the consumption of the fruit for the preservation of the next batch of fruits.

To develop this non-toxic and reusable wrapping paper, the team allowed carbon matrix to incubate with the preservative. After the incubation for 24 hr in room temperature, the resultant was washed several times to remove the extra preservatives. And finally, this carbon-preservative composite was cast into paper. This work has been published in the journal ‘ACS applied materials and interface’.

"Already waste-derived carbon materials are known to harbour huge amount of organic molecule loading, hence the preservative loaded carbon has been prepared and cast into paper for the fruit preservation. Increasing the capacity of carbon to hold organic molecules helped us to develop this product," adds Dr. Vijayakumar.

This novel product can benefit the farmers and food industry by extending the shelf life of fruits. Using this wrapper for the fruit will also ensure that the customer gets the fruits with healthy quality, as we have found improvement in the phenol content. The production of this graphene fruit wrapper requires only the carbon produced from the heating of biomass, hence it will also benefit in biomass consumption and employment generation.

Publication details:

Sharma S. B.; Biswal K.; Kumari D.; Pulkit Kumar, S.; Stobdan T. and Vijayakumar P. S.*Eco-friendly Fruit Switches: Graphene Oxide-Based Wrapper for Programmed Fruit Preservative Delivery To Extend Shelf Life. ACS applied materials and interface. 2018, 10, 18478–18488.

India's Food-Tech Industry to Grow at 25% CAGR to $8 Bn by 2022-End: Google-BCG report

Rising internet penetration, increasing ordering frequency and favourable consumer disposition are some of the factors driving growth in the Indian food-tech industry that is poised to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 25-30 per cent to USD 8 billion by the end of 2022, a report by Google and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said on Tuesday.

"Riding on the wave of higher consumption in a growing market and maturing dynamics on the supply side, we expect the industry to grow from USD 4 billion to USD 8 billion in the next three years, a massive 25 per cent growth rate," the report titled 'Demystifying the Online Food Consumer' said.

It added that funding in the food-tech space has grown by 35 times in the past five years.

Macro trends such as rising internet penetration, increasing ordering frequency, favourable consumer disposition, expanding reach in smaller tiers and expanding network of restaurants on food-tech platforms pan-India continue to drive momentum in the industry, the report said.

As a consequence, reach of food-tech aggregators has grown six times from 2017 to 2019. At the same time, consumers are spending more than double the time to explore and order online -- from 32 minutes per month in 2017 to 72 minutes per month in 2019.

The study cited peer or network advocacy (52 per cent) plays a critical role in drawing people to try online food ordering for the first time. This was followed by advertisements (19 per cent) that emerged to be a strong driver in metros and among the higher income groups across the country.

"The food tech industry is nascent but one of the fastest growing in the country... Food tech has now made its presence in greater than 500 cities in India and with consumer confidence growing, there are new opportunities for the players to 'win with the consumer' in an evolving market," Google Director (Travel, BFSI, Classifieds, Gaming, Telco and Payments) Roma Datta Chobey said.

Overall, online spending in India is expected to grow at 25 per cent over the next five years to cross USD 130 billion. The report also flagged the impediments that hinder adoption by consumers.

A fifth of the respondents stated a lack of trust in the app as the main barrier to usage -- they believe that the role and control of the aggregators in the actual food preparation is low.

Delivery charges (18 per cent), food quality concerns (13 per cent) and lack of customisation (10 per cent) were other reasons customers cited for not having experimented with online food ordering so far.

Interestingly, while delivery charge was the top reason for not ordering food online in metro cities; in tier-I cities, lack of trust in apps (29 per cent) emerged as the primary roadblock.

"Food tech start-ups have revolutionised the way Indians eat. There is now a greater demand for healthy, home-cooked meals leading to emergence of new business models like cloud kitchen and meal subscriptions. Ordering food online is now a habit," BCG Senior Partner and Managing Director Abheek Singhi said.

There is large headroom to increase reach, engagement and usage frequency for food-tech apps, he added. PTI SR

Agritech Startup WayCool Acquires Bangalore-based Farm Taaza's Distribution Operations

Chennai-based WayCool Foods & Products Pvt. Ltd. has engaged into a business transfer agreement with Farm Taaza, a Bengaluru based fresh produce e-commerce enterprise that works with online and offline retailers and other clients and backed by Hong Kong-based Epsilon Venture Partners and former iGate CEO Phaneesh Murthy.

The agreement will enable WayCool integrate Farm Taaza’s collection & distribution centres, as well as the base of customers across Southern India onto its supply chain platform, increasing its capacity by an additional 40-45 tons per day.

Commenting on this strategic move, Sanjay Dasari, Co-Founder, WayCool Foods said, “We are delighted to bring on board the distribution business of Farm Taaza, one of the first movers and pioneers in the agritech space. We have begun the task of getting the tech and ops teams together, and integrating Farm Taaza’s centres seamlessly into our IT platform. With this, we will be able to increase our procurement base as well as our distribution footprint in specific target markets such as Telangana and Karnataka.”

This move enables Waycool to add another building block in its strategy of building out a full stack food supply chain. Earlier this year, WayCool had acquired the distribution business of Aalgro Foods, and had taken significant equity stake in M/s Benani Foods Pvt. Ltd., the promoters of Freshey’s ready-to-cook products.

WayCool currently serves a network of around 8,000 clients with 200 tons of food products every day from a base of 35,000 farmers.

Kumar Ramachandran, Founder, Farm Taaza, said, “While we have had good success in building a supply chain business in the fresh produce industry, we felt that our core skills lay more in the Tech Space as an enabler for change. We have known WayCool for quite some time and given the robust supply chain they’ve built this far, we felt they would be the best partners to hand over our operations to while we pursue our new initiatives.”
About WayCool Foods Pvt. Ltd.

In July 2017, Farm Taaza had raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Epsilon Venture Partners and Tara India Fund IV, which was managed by IL&FS Investment Managers Ltd.

Farm Taaza had also received $1 million in its seed round from angel investors such as former iGate CEO Phaneesh Murthy and former Asia-Pacific chief of Intel Capital Sudheer Kuppam.

WayCool Foods, founded in July 2015 by Sanjay Dasari and Karthik Jayaraman, is India’s fastest growing food development & distribution platform leveraging innovative technology to scale-up and operate a complex supply chain. The company operates a full-stack, broadline product range across multiple channels and categories like fresh produce, staples and dairy serving over 8,000 clients in the general trade, modern trade, and food services space.

In January this year, WayCool raised Rs 120 Crore , as a combination of equity and debt from LGT Impact, prominent angels, and institutional lenders, including Northern Arc Capital and Caspian.

~ Via Business Wire India feed (edited)

Frshly Announces Its Launch in India, to Offer Hot Food on the Go

Indian Food tech startup - ‘Frshly’ has launched its service offerings at the Bengaluru Central Railway Station and Chennai International Airport. Frshly is a first-of-its-kind automated retail marketplace that sells fresh and hot food from popular restaurant brands in the city for people who are on the move.

Currently offering 6 different cuisines with 30 combos, the brand promises unprecedented service quality, convenience and variety to its customers through its state-of-the-art dispensing machines. The brand is currently present across 3 cities – Bengaluru, Chennai and Secundrabad.

‘Frshly’ serves piping hot food from popular restaurants across the city including Tadka Singh, Currylicious, Delhi Highway, Anjappar and Nandhana Palace in Bengaluru. While in Chennai food is available from – ‘Anjappar, Kumarakom’,‘Delhi Highway’, ‘Arab Street’, ‘MadrasiBiryani’ and Eco Kitchen. Consumers have a wide range to choose from multiple restaurants at every Frshly outlet. Consumers can download the Frshly app from Apple and Google play stores to pick locations, order and pay for their food on the go. The available food options have been priced between – INR 79 – INR 160.

“We are delighted to bring a unique concept in India called Frshly, where in consumers have access to high quality food from multiple restaurants, takeaway-friendly packaging and quick food pick-up service. The technology in our systems keeps the food fresh and heats up before delivering the product which ensure hot and tasty food served all the time,” Satish Chamy Velumani CEO - FRSHLY.

“We have operations in Bengaluru, Chennai and Secundrabad in India with about 16 stores at key IT parks and large IT companies and setup our stores at the Railway stations and airports. We will be launching in Singapore shortly in collaboration with SPRING, a Singapore Government Body under the Spring SEED (Spring Startup Enterprise Development) scheme. We have also set our vision to enter other Asia Pacific countries & Middle East Market by 2017,” adds Satish.

“With the help of IRCTC we are working with their main food plaza licensees to install Frshly across all A1 & A category stations in India. We are all set to initiate a revolution of unparalleled passenger satisfaction across the Indian Railways Network. Frshly can replace the traditional pantry coaches in railways and we are in talks with Indian Railways to make it a reality soon. We also wish to take our flagship product to the global railways. We aim to bring a fully automated "Vend - cafe" concept inside the train where all the food & beverage options will be made available at the push of a button.We have also come up with mobile App (iOS & Android) for passengers to order in the train,” Ramesh Narayanan, Chief Business Development Officer, FRSHLY.

Image : Ramesh Narayanan, Chief Business Development Officer, FRSHLY