Home Cloud Kitchen “Homefoodi” to deliver Home-Cooked Meals throughout the Lockdown

A cloud kitchen is primarily a kitchen that accepts incoming orders only through online ordering systems and offers no dine-in facility. They have a base kitchen that delivers food to the customers' doorstep. While the term Cloud Kitchen has largely been used for Commercial Kitchens, a new wave has been sweeping for Home Kitchens. A Home Cloud Kitchen is a Home Kitchen which delivers Home Cooked Food just as any other Cloud Kitchen without any dining facility.

Amidst the current events, Homefoodi a Noida based e-commerce startup and also a renowned aggregator of Cloud Kitchens operating from Home aims to offer nutritious and hygienic meals to its customers while undertaking maximum measures while ensuring the safety of its home-chefs, delivery executives and customers.

Homefoodi is India's 1st Mobile App for authentic home-made food made by Genuine home chefs in their home Kitchens. With over 200+ Home Chefs in Noida, the Homefoodi Mobile App offers access to the widest range of Home Food and Bakery products prepared by home chefs during the course of the lockdown period.



The current global scenario and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic are disturbing every facet of our lives, keeping the current scenario in mind, the Government of India recently extended lockdown across the country. A lockdown does not allow one to step out of their premises unless an emergency. A recent incident of a renowned Pizza Outlet in Delhi caught the eyeballs of the entire nation with a Corona Positive Pizza Delivery Executive was found delivering pizzas across the city endangering his own colleagues as well as his customers, and completely violating the rules set by our Government.

Homefoodi, therefore, undertakes preventive readiness measures for the safety of their customers, home-chefs as well as the delivery executives. 

They follow a 3 C framework of Delivery Hygiene:

• CARRY: All Delivery Representatives have been ably trained on Hygiene and Sanitization standards. As a practice, every Delivery Rep carries a Kit comprising of A) Hand Sanitizer B) Face Mask and C) Gloves and D) Thermometer.


• CONTACT LESS: Delivery packages are picked and dropped without any contact with Home Chef and the Consumer.   


• CONFIRM: All Delivery representatives are supervised daily to confirm to Sanitization, Hygiene and Social Distancing Norms as outlined.

These are the times when most of the Commercial kitchens are shut. Homefoodi in compliance with the Govt. mandate is offering homemade food made by home chefs. Homefoodi is providing their services across Noida, Greater Noida and Indirapuram. 

With the announcement of the Lockdown, Homefoodi has also rolled out a key initiative, wherein they have been ‘Donating a Meal for Every Order Placed’ to the needy on behalf of the customer.

Narendra Singh Dahiya, Founder and Director Homefoodi stated, “Our business model is built around Health and Hygiene. We are delighted that our passionate and talented community of 200 plus Home Chefs can now serve Healthy, Fresh and Hygienic Home food to countless Customers."

Homefoodi has been very selective and responsible in selecting every Home Chefs. As a Company policy, the Homefoodi team visits every Home chef to ensure Food taste, quality, hygiene, cleanliness of their kitchen, and packaging standards before on-boarding them. All Home Chefs are 100% FSSAI Certified and uphold the Highest Standards of Cleanliness and Hygiene that can be only witnessed at Homes. Homefoodi Home Chefs make food in their Home Kitchens that prioritizing Fresh, Healthy, and Hygienic food. 

Homefoodi is a Mobile Application for Home Food made by Home Chefs that empowers and connects society. Based out of Noida, the company has a mission of creating “Ghar-Ghar Start-Up” with an aim to create India’s biggest self-employment opportunity for women by offering a platform to earn from home being a Home Chef. The company aims towards advocating initiatives like Healthy India, Women empowerment, which empowers every homemaker towards nation-building and healthy India. The screening criterion for all chefs is a comprehensive process. To deliver 100% authenticity, the Homefoodi team visits the aspiring Home Chefs to check for food tasting, food quality, hygiene, and cleanliness of their kitchen and packaging standards. All Home Chefs are 100% FSSAI Certified.

Swiggy Raises additional $43 Mn as Part of Ongoing Funding Round

Food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy on Monday said it has raised an additional amount of USD 43 million (over Rs 325 crore) as part of its ongoing Series-I funding round.

The size of the round now stands at USD 156 million.

In February 2020, Swiggy raised USD 113 million (over Rs 805 crore) in the funding round led by existing investor Prosus N.V. along with participation from Meituan Dianping and Wellington Management Company.

Along with existing investor Tencent, new investors Ark Impact, Korea Investment Partners, Samsung Ventures and Mirae Asset Capital Markets have participated in the latest fund raise, Swiggy said in a statement.

"Swiggy has built a sustainable food delivery business over the years while solving various customer pain points. As we continue to strengthen and expand our services that offer unparalleled convenience to our consumers, we are humbled by the faith shown by our investors year-on-year and welcome the new investors on board," Swiggy Chief Financial Officer Rahul Bothra said.

The company's focus remains to execute its vision while building a sustainable path to profitability, he added. PTI AKT

Punjab Prohibits Online Supply of Food from Food Biz Operators Not Possessing Hygiene Rating

The Punjab government's Food and Drug Administration on Sunday said it has prohibited online supply of food from Food Business Operators (FBOs) not possessing hygiene rating.

Issuing the prohibition orders, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner K S Pannu said invoking provisions under the Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006, keeping in view the interest of public health, the distribution/supply/sale of articles of food through Online Food Supply Aggregators (OFSAs) related to those FBOs who have not got their hygiene rating done has been prohibited.

"The orders also prohibit OFSAs from sourcing the food from FBOs which are not hygienically rated and also where such rating is less than three out of five," a Punjab government release said.

The prohibition orders would be effective for one year beginning April 30, 2020.

The orders state that in Punjab, information technology-driven OFSAs have been distributing/selling/ supplying food to the consumers after sourcing the same from FBOs.

"This food delivery through an IT based platform is a very recent phenomenon in which the direct and primary contact between the consumer of food articles and the manufacturers of food articles, especially the hot cooked food articles, has snapped.

"This mechanism of distribution/sale/supply of food by OFSAs has obliterated the system of responsibility of maintaining the quality of food, which till now was being directly verified by the consumers from the food business operators at his counter," the release said.

It further stated that with the introduction of OFSAs, it has become important to ensure that these aggregators supply only good quality and properly hygienic food articles to the consumers.

"Although, it is the moral responsibility of FBOs and OFSAs to ensure quality and hygiene of food delivered, the duty is also cast upon the State authorities to ensure safe food to public under the Section 18(1)(a) of food Safety and Standards Act, 2006," said Pannu.

He said that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued instructions vide which the system of hygiene rating of the food business operators has been introduced. FSSAI has empanelled various agencies to conduct the hygiene rating of the FBOs.

Pannu said the office of the Food and Drug Administration, Punjab had asked all the OFSAs to ensure that the FBOs from where they are sourcing food for distribution to consumers should get the hygiene rating of their business done.

The date of getting the hygiene rating of the FBOs done was earlier extended till October 31, 2019, Pannu said.

"However, it has been observed that even after creating awareness regarding the importance of hygiene rating, OFSAs have not taken the matter seriously, resulting in consumers continuously facing the potential of delivery of unsafe/unhygienic food..," he said. PTI SUN

McDonald’s India – North and East focuses on delivery, partners with Swiggy

With a focus on Delivery, McDonald’s India – North and East has partnered with Swiggy, one of India’s leading food delivery platforms. The partnership with Swiggy will allow McDonald’s to reach out to new customers, offering additional growth potential for its business. The service will be available through more than 125 McDonald’s restaurants in North and East India.

“We are excited to be available for customers on Swiggy and are committed to deliver a great experience every time they order from us,” said, Robert Hunghanfoo, Head, Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt. Ltd.

Delivery is one of the key growth drivers for McDonald’s, not only in India, but also globally. “Delivery provides us a way to both attract new customers and regain customers who have not ordered from us for a while. It also enables us to service and win over those customers who are seeking convenience in this increasingly fast paced world,” added Robert.

“We know our consumers love the convenience of getting their favorite dishes right at their doorstep. Through this partnership, we look forward to delighting our consumers in the North and East of India who can now order their McDonald’s menu favourites seamlessly through Swiggy,” said Srivats TS, VP Marketing at Swiggy.

With one of India’s leading food delivery platforms Swiggy on board, McDonald’s will offer increased accessibility and availability of McDelivery to its customers in North and East India. 

As a launch offer, customers on Swiggy can avail up to 30% off for a limited time period using the code: SWIGGYIT*. 

About McDonald’s India – North and East: McDonald’s restaurants in North and East India are operated by Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt. Ltd. McDonald’s is committed to deliver the highest quality restaurant experience to its customers in India and serves a variety of menu options made with quality ingredients sourced locally. McDonald’s serves millions of customers annually at its more than 150 restaurants across North and East India and provides direct employment to over 6,000 people. With a customer-centric approach, McDonald’s operates through a variety of formats and brand extensions including standalone restaurants, Drive-thru’s, 24/7 restaurants, McDelivery for customer convenience and experience. 

About Swiggy: Founded in 2014, Swiggy is India’s leading on-demand delivery platform with a vision to elevate the quality of life for the urban consumer by offering unparalleled convenience. It connects consumers to over 160,000 restaurant partners across 520+ cities. Using innovative technology, Swiggy provides a hassle-free, fast and reliable delivery experience. Every order delivered by Swiggy’s fleet of 2.5 lakh+ active delivery partners engaged on a principal to principal basis, the largest in India, ensures a host of customer-centric features like lightning fast delivery, no minimum order value, live order tracking, and 24/7 customer support.

Swiggy Introduces 'BrandWorks' to Co-Create Delivery Brands with Restaurants

Food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy on Wednesday announced the introduction of a new initiative 'BrandWorks', to co-create delivery brands with its restaurant partners.

These brands, co-created by the company's BrandWorks, are delivery brands that operate out of the restaurant partners' existing dine-in facilities. This is an asset-light low-investment model, Swiggy said in a statement.

This model can, therefore, scale rapidly and generate revenue for restaurants from day one with negligible capital investment -- a win-win for all stakeholders, it added.

"Having created over 1,000 Access kitchens for our restaurant partners, we are now meeting unmet consumer needs by co-creating delivery brands through our BrandWorks initiative," Swiggy New Supply CEO Vishal Bhatia said.

This is an important step in bridging supply gaps, creating consumer delight and offering restaurants unmatched growth opportunities through an innovative business model, he added.

"Our goal is to co-create hundreds of such brands with multiple restaurant partners across the country by the end of 2020," Bhatia said.

Swiggy currently has 100 such brands on its platform that were co-created with 95 restaurant partners across 13 cities, the company said.

Both models offered by Swiggy complement each other -- Swiggy Access facilitates easy expansion of restaurant brands across locations while BrandWorks helps restaurant partners expand their brand portfolio using existing kitchen space and culinary abilities, he added.

On being asked about the business model for BrandWorks, Bhatia told PTI, "It is a variablised commission model."

The idea is to co-create a brand using Swiggy's intelligence and insights and the brand ownership remains with the restaurant partners. It is through deep engagement and ongoing conversation with partners that these brands are created, he added.

In similar vein, Bercos Managing Partner Kabir Advani on the launch of their latest delivery brand 'House of Chow' said, "Food delivery is a big part of the restaurant business today and it is crucial for us restaurateurs to tap into this demand to grow our businesses."

By co-creating "our new delivery brand -- House of Chow -- our consumer base has grown without diluting our parent brand and the asset-light model eliminates risks of extending our brand portfolio. Truly a win-win proposition," he added.

The restaurant owners are also exploring extending these brands into dine-in formats as well, the statement said. PTI AKT

Homefoodi Partners with Dunzo to bring Authentic Home-Made Delicacies Delivered at your Doorstep

Homefoodi, a Noida based e-commerce start-up has partnered with Dunzo to provide authentic home-made food made by home chefs delivered right at your doorstep. Through this partnership, the company aims to reach out to the end-users by allowing consumers to select from a wide range of homemade food that can be ordered anytime by the consumers.

Homefoodi had recently launched its one of a kind mobile application in Noida which is dedicated to providing the customers with home-cooked authentic food. The company has started this application with an initiative to help “Ghar Ki Lakshmi” transforming into “Bharat Ki Lakshmi” with a focus to providing women employment opportunities and a platform for them to display their expert culinary skills.

Speaking at the association Narendra Singh Dahiya, Founder and Director, Homefoodi comments, “Homefoodi is an initiative that is aimed to bring the homemakers together and providing them a platform that acknowledges their skills and at the same time helping them earn an independent source of income.

“Through our association with Dunzo, 100 plus Home Chefs can deliver over 1,000 orders in Noida every day. Our endeavor is to amplify our reach to the end-consumers and provide them a great user experience. ”,quoted Dahiya.

With Dunzo onboard, Home Chefs on Homefoodi will be able to offer the option of delivering a host of authentic home-cooked delicacies to consumers in Noida. The tie-up will also allow consumers to place orders for meals daily and also in advance. The consumers will also have an option to pay online or pay cash on delivery.

Aabhar Gilhotra, Dunzo comments, “As a brand, Dunzo intends to provide a platform where we can connect the user with the nearest delivery person who can make purchases, pick up items, and deliver to the customer’s doorstep. The partnership with Homefoodi will help us drive more customer engagement through home-cooked authentic meals with a simple click of a button and deliver an enriching experience”.

Homefoodi is committed to the idea of empowering every chef to create their own unique identity.The home chefs come from various parts of the country wherein Homefoodi offers them a platform to showcase their culinary skills thereby revolutionizing the culture of eating. Apparently, Homefoodi has started its operation with over 100 chefs onboard and plans to scale over 1 lakh chefs across the country in the coming years. With the launch, the company has brought in two dedicated mobile applications, one for the Chefs and one for the Customers.

About Dunzo:

Dunzo is a technology company that connects users to the nearest delivery partner for local deliveries. Whether it’s a quick run from your local store, or getting you that book that is only available in one store at the other end of the city, Dunzo can get anything and everything (legal) done with a click. If the product exists in your city, Dunzo Partners will find a way to deliver it to you. Dunzo aims to be the logistical layer of every city that can move products and people from A to B in the most efficient manner possible, through the use of technology. Dunzo also has a bike taxi service in Gurgaon. Dunzo is available in Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune.

About Homefoodi:

Homefoodi is a Mobile Application for Home Food made by Home Chefs that empowers and connects society. Based out of Noida, the company has a mission of creating “Ghar-Ghar Start-Up” with an aim to create India’s biggest self-employment opportunity for women by offering a platform to earn from home being a Home Chef. Every home chef on Homefoodi has a long history of patronizing some age-old recipes and cuisines carried forward from generations. At Homefoodi every chef has been handpicked for their exceptional culinary skills and the highest standards of cleanliness.

The company aims towards advocating initiatives like Healthy India, Women empowerment, which empowers every homemaker towards nation-building and healthy India. The screening criterion for all chefs is a comprehensive process. To deliver 100% authenticity, the Homefoodi team visits the aspiring Home Chefs to check for food tasting, food quality, hygiene and cleanliness of their kitchen and packaging standards. All Home Chefs are 100% FSSAI Certified.

Homefoodi is a subsidiary of BLD Dine Home Private Limited, incorporated in Noida. The company has offices in Noida and Gurugram and will be available across the Top 10 Cities very soon.

McDonald’s relaunches online food ordering service ‘McDelivery™ with exclusive deals in North and East India

Customers can now order their favorite items from McDonald’s menu* online at www.mcdeliveryonline.com or download the McDelivery™ app (North and East) from the App Store or Google Play or by scanning the QR code 

McDonald’s has relaunched the popular online food ordering service ‘McDeliveryTM’. Customers now have the convenience of ordering their favorite food items from McDonald’s menu through McDeliveryTM app and website. The relaunch of online ordering platforms in North and East India has added a new dimension of convenience to McDonald’s core of serving great tasting food to the customers every day.



“We are happy to restart McDelivery™ online services and we look forward to serving our customers great-tasting food, in the comfort of their homes and offices. We are committed to delivering on our core commitments of Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value, while exceeding our customers’ expectations every time they order from us,” said, Robert Hunghanfoo, Head of Connaught Plaza Restaurants Private Limited (CPRL).

To add to the customer’s delight, McDonald’s is offering a free McAloo Tikki™ Burger on online orders worth INR 300 or more ***.

Currently, McDelivery™ services are available through select restaurants in North and East India****.

Connaught Plaza Restaurants Private Limited (CPRL) is wholly owned by McDonald’s and operates McDonald’s restaurants in North and East India.

About McDonald’s:

McDonald’s is the world’s leading global foodservice retailer with about 38,000 locations in over 100 countries. Approximately 93% of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local business men and women.

*Except for some items that cannot be delivered, most of our menu is available, please check the menu option on the website.

**McDelivery™ hours vary from restaurant to restaurant.

*** Limited period offer, valid till October 31, 2019; Order value exclusive of delivery charges and applicable taxes

****McDelivery™ services are currently available in select locations/cities in North and East India including Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida, Chandigarh, Jalandhar; and in select areas in the city of Kolkata.

Online Food Platforms to Redesign Schemes to Check Deep Discounts: NRAI

The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) on Tuesday said food aggregators have agreed to redesign their schemes to rein in deep discounts offered to customers and asserted that discount is a privilege not a right.

The NRAI stressed on the need to "detox" the restaurant-customer ecosystem from the addiction of deep discounts that has crippled the industry.

The association, which represents leading restaurant chains, independent eateries, bars and diners, was in talks with online food delivery platforms like Zomato and Swiggy for the past two days to resolve the confrontation over discounting schemes, dine-in programmes and table reservation schemes.

Launching a logging out campaign in protest against dine-in schemes, around 1,200 restaurants in major cities had reportedly delisted from the dine-in programmes of food aggregators, saying that deep discounting offered by the platforms was unsustainable and was hurting their business.

"Over the past two days, NRAI held extensive meetings with all restaurant aggregators and we were bemused to learn that the aggregators were promoting deep-discounts to stay competitive amongst each other," the association said in a statement.

What hurts the most is that these deep-discounts are funded by the restaurant industry and not the aggregators, it added.

"Moreover, as opposed to general perception, restaurants do not get any share of the proceeds that aggregators generate from guests as subscription fees," the statement said.

NRAI and aggregators were in agreement that technology is the backbone to enable restaurant discovery and a friction-less experience to the guests. However, guests should not be lured by devaluing the core product at a restaurant, it added.

"Therefore it was decided, that all aggregators will rejig their features which will allow the restaurant-customer ecosystem to detox from addiction of deep-discounts that has crippled the industry," the statement said.

The idea of scoring a discount should make guests feel special and not give them a sense of beating the system. Discount is a privilege and not a right, it added.

Discounting works well in the retail space, because brands can limit supply or at least make it look like supply is limited, and therefore create a sense of urgency in the eyes of the consumer, the statement said.

"Unlike retail, where end of season sale is to clear leftovers, a restaurant doesn't serve leftovers at a discounted price. It's all prepared fresh and made to order," NRAI said, highlighting the difference between the two sectors.

When asked about the future steps that the association plans to take on the issue, NRAI said: "When we hear back from all the aggregators on the changes/tweaks they will do, we will review if the objective of curbing deep discounting has been achieved." PTI AKT

Ola Suspends Food Delivery Biz of Foodpanda, Lay-off Employees

Ola has suspended food delivery business of Foodpanda, which the cab aggregator acquired in 2017, reported LiveMint. Ola has even laid off about 40 mid- to entry-level employees and terminated the contracts of most of its 1,500 food delivery executives, said the report citing four people aware of the development and confirming the report.

For last couple of months, Ola is reportedly struggling to keep the Foodpanda business afloat as the established specialty players such as Swiggy, Zomato and Ubereats have already acquired a major portion of the market.

According to the report, Ola wants to shift its focus from food delivery from restaurants to its own brands and in-house cloud kitchen business, which it launched after Foodpanda acquired Holachef, a Mumbai-based food-tech startup, in October last year.

Ola has launched a few brands and is considering the launch of a few more. Under its cloud kitchen business, Foodpanda currently owns three private label brands - The Great Khichdi Experiment, Lovemade and FLRT.

The report quoted one of its sources, "They (Ola) have realized they can’t burn money like Swiggy and Zomato, which is why they only want to do in-house brands. Over the last few months, Foodpanda has been scaling down its marketplace."

Following the suspension of Foodpanda, Ola is now in talks with delivery firms such as Dunzo and Zomato to re-list its cloud kitchen brands. It wants to focus only on running the cloud kitchen brands instead of a food delivery business, the report said.

In the last two weeks alone, Ola has dissolved the ground team of Foodpanda completely. While Ola has retained its core operations team having senior employees, the entry-level employees were given pink-slips which then was followed by lay-off of on-ground operations team. Notably, it was Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal who supervised the staffing of executives at Foodpanda post its acquisition.

In 2015, Ola had tried its hands on food delivery business with Ola Cafe, where customers could order through the app and Ola cabs would deliver the order in quick time. However, within a year later the company had to shut down the service on account of stiff competition from Swiggy and Zomato.

In the same year, Ola also tried to diversify its business by adding online grocery delivery service to its offerings by launching 'Ola Store' in July 2015

Last year in May, it was reported that Ola's parent ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd was setting up a holding company that will own different business units, including its core cab business, food delivery app Foodpanda and the nascent businesses of electric vehicles (EV) and the international unit.

India Online Food Ordering and Delivery Market to Grow at a CAGR of over 7% till 2024

India Online Food Ordering and Delivery Market By Operation Type, By Source, By Payment, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2024”, India online food ordering and delivery market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of over 7% on the back of rising disposable income, increasing penetration of internet and usage of smartphones, according to TechSci Research report.

Moreover, restaurants and cafes are showing inclination towards online sale of their food items as it significantly reduces operational overheads.

In terms of payment, India online food ordering and delivery market is categorized into mobile wallet, card payment, cash on delivery and net banking. Among these payment modes, cash on delivery dominated India online food ordering and delivery market in 2018. The growth of cash on delivery payment category can be attributed to the fact that people, in India, while making online payments, are skeptical of the process and mechanism they have to go through while making a payment online. However, with increasing security features being provided by various banks while making online transactions is gaining customer’s trust which is anticipated to increase the market share of other payment methods.

The card payment category is predicted to grow at a decent pace during forecast period owing to increasing preference towards using plastic money, after the government’s announcement of incentives on the use of debit/credit cards in the country wherein, service charges and surcharge will not be applicable while making payment through debit/credit cards. Moreover, reward points and grace period are other factors encouraging the use of card payment in India.

Regionally, India online food ordering and delivery market is categorized into North, South, East and West. Among the regions, the southern part of the country accounted for a significant portion of the Indian market in 2018. The growth of the southern region is due to the presence of large number of students and working professionals from other regions of the country.

“India online food ordering and delivery market is expected to offer tremendous potential for growth over the course of next five years. The growth of the market is majorly due to the discounts, cashbacks, coupons and deals that a user can avail while ordering food online. Moreover, growing investments in online food ordering and delivery market is further positively influencing the growth of the market.” said Mr. Karan Chechi, Research Director with TechSci Research, a research based global management consulting firm.

According to TechSci Research “India Online Food Ordering and Delivery Market By Operation Type, By Source, By Payment, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2024”, has evaluated the future growth potential of India online food ordering and delivery market and provides statistics and information on market size, structure and future market growth. The report intends to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment decisions. Besides, the report also identifies and analyzes the emerging trends along with essential drivers, challenges and opportunities in India online food ordering and delivery market.

Swiggy to Acquire Uber Eats' India Business worth $330 Mn

Uber Eats, the food delivery business of cab hailing firm Uber, was launched nearly two years ago in India, however established local brands like Zomato and Swiggy have not allowed Uber to make its own space among the Indian customers and now, according to ET report, Uber's food delivery business 'UberEats' is all set make a tactical exit by selling its India business worth $330 million to its local rival Swiggy.

Uber is selling its food business of India in order to push down its losses and help the company go for IPO with targeted valuation.

The acquisition is likely to be a share swap i.e. -- Uber would pay with stocks rather than with cash -- giving Uber around 10% stake in Swiggy, which was last valued at $3.3 billion.

In March last year, Uber did exactly the same when its exited its transport and food delivery businesses by selling it to deal with Singapore-based Grab. Uber closed that deal in exchange for a 27.5% in Grab .

Touted as a major revenue generator for Uber,  Uber Eats was reported to be valued at over $20 billion and grossed $1.5 billion in sales in the first quarter of 2018 alone.

Expected to close by March, the acquisition -- if happens -- will be Swiggy's largest acquisition till date, and Uber's first divestment of its food business globally.

Uber's move to sell its business in one of Asian countries is in line with it's global strategy to cut down on losses as it prepares for a public offering (IPO) at a possible valuation of $120-150 billion.

Notably, Uber Eats had also held discussions with Zomato, but those talks fell through, said the ET report.

It may noteworthy that Swiggy's last fund-raise, which made it to valued at $3.3 billion, was led by Naspers including new backers Tencent and Coatue and Coatue is an investor in Uber too.

Coatue is a technology sector hedge fund that invests in public and private equity markets. It is led by Philippe Laffont, who founded the hedge fund after leaving Tiger Management in 1999.

This month, Swiggy acqui-hired Kint.io, a Bangalore-based
Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup, for an undisclosed amount. Kint.io, which was Swiggy's third acquisition, applies deep learning and computer vision for object recognition in video.

Zomato, Swiggy in Talks To Raise New $200 Mn Each from Alibaba, DST Global Respectively

​Hardly three months after raising $200 million from Ant Financials, Zomato is reportedly in talks to raise another fresh $200 million from Alibaba. Coincidentally, Zomato's competitor Swiggy is also close to raise fresh funds up to same amount of $200-million in a new financing round with participation from Yuri Milner’s DST Global, Coatue Management, and Meituan-Dianping, a Beijing, China-based food review and delivery giant.

In February, Alibababa had invested $200 million in Zomato through its affiliate Ant Financials, however this time, Alibaba is looking to directly back the Gurgaon-based food delivery startup in a $200-million financing round, which will peg Zomato’s valuation at $1.5 billion, according to the people privy to funding talks of Zomato.

According to sources cited in a Times of India report, while Zomato’s financing round is in an early stage, Swiggy has already closed its $200-million fund-raise, valuing it at $1 billion after the investment. Although, an official announcement Swiggy's fresh fund-raise is still awaited.

It may be recalled that the new fund-raise of Swiggy is coming at times when it was reported that beside delivering foods online, the startup is also close to start delivering medicines and grocery as it looks to diversify its business model and boost volume beyond just food ordering. This new service will be named as 'Dash'.

The decision of Alibaba to double its investment in Zomato comes right after the Alibaba group bought out China’s food delivery service Ele.me.

Uber, on other hand, is expected to invest $200 million into its food delivery business, UberEats, in India. While Ola, with its recently bought Foodpanda, has already anticipating a substantial growth of its food delivery business in line with other players by committing $200 million in it.

With infuse of fresh capital of about $800 Mn to $1 Bn in food delivery segment startups including all four -- Zomato, Siggy, UberEat and Ola's Foodpanda -- consumers in India can expect increased discounts and promotions, thanks to cut-throat competition ignited by upcoming funding spree into this segment.

Notably, the food delivery segment in India is heating up with new players like UberEats, Ola’s acquisition, for which Ola has committed to invest additional $200 million, to get the slice of food delivery business in India. And now, British food delivery unicorn startup Deliveroo entering the Indian market as well.

According to the sources tracking the sector, Swiggy is currently the largest online food delivery app with about 10 million orders per month while Zomato is clocking approximately 7.5 million orders monthly. Latest numbers for Foodpanda were 40,000 monthly orders, while UberEats was at 20,000-25,000.

Via - Economic Times | Top Image - InShorts.com

Swiggy Raises $100 Mn In A Funding Led By Naspers and China's Meituan

Swiggy, India’s leading food ordering and delivery platform, announced today that it has raised USD 100 million in Series F funding, its largest round yet. Led by Naspers, a global internet and entertainment group, and one of the world’s largest technology investors, the Series also includes new investor Meituan-Dianping, China's largest service e-commerce platform.

Swiggy will use the freshly raised funds to introduce new products and services and further expand its supply chain business, New Supply, which launched late last year.

With the latest funding, Swiggy's has now raised total of $255 million till date, with a previous $70 million round also led by Naspers to launch Swiggy into markets across India. Part of that capital also went to acquire the gourmet Indian food startup 48East.

Sriharsha Majety, Swiggy’s chief executive, said in a statement, “With this funding, we will further invest in building differentiated offerings, plugging the white spaces in the ecosystem, and developing our technology while keeping superlative customer experience at the core.”

Previous investors in Swiggy include Harmony Partners, Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Softbank’s SAIF Partners.

Earlier this week, Swiggy launched its operations in Jaipur by roping in over 300 restaurants in the city.

The platform is now present in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Chandigarh.

Swiggy has more than 20,000 restaurant partners across cities in the country. It was last valued at $400 million when Naspers led a $80-million investment in May 2017.

Incidentally, with this funding one can expect more cut throat competition in India's food delivery segment as Swiggy's biggest competitor Zomato has too recently raised whopping $200 million from Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial. Additionally, British food delivery unicorn startup Deliveroo entering the Indian market to heat up India's food delivery space.

Moreover, according to a report by Morgan Stanley, Gurgaon-based Zomato has shot up its valuation to US $2.5 billion, which is thrice of its last valuation.

Swiggy Raises $100 Mn In A Funding Led By Naspers and China's Meituan

Swiggy, India’s leading food ordering and delivery platform, announced today that it has raised USD 100 million in Series F funding, its largest round yet. Led by Naspers, a global internet and entertainment group, and one of the world’s largest technology investors, the Series also includes new investor Meituan-Dianping, China's largest service e-commerce platform.

Swiggy will use the freshly raised funds to introduce new products and services and further expand its supply chain business, New Supply, which launched late last year.

With the latest funding, Swiggy's has now raised total of $255 million till date, with a previous $70 million round also led by Naspers to launch Swiggy into markets across India. Part of that capital also went to acquire the gourmet Indian food startup 48East.

Sriharsha Majety, Swiggy’s chief executive, said in a statement, “With this funding, we will further invest in building differentiated offerings, plugging the white spaces in the ecosystem, and developing our technology while keeping superlative customer experience at the core.”

Previous investors in Swiggy include Harmony Partners, Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Softbank’s SAIF Partners.

Earlier this week, Swiggy launched its operations in Jaipur by roping in over 300 restaurants in the city.

The platform is now present in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Chandigarh.

Swiggy has more than 20,000 restaurant partners across cities in the country. It was last valued at $400 million when Naspers led a $80-million investment in May 2017.

Incidentally, with this funding one can expect more cut throat competition in India's food delivery segment as Swiggy's biggest competitor Zomato has too recently raised whopping $200 million from Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial. Additionally, British food delivery unicorn startup Deliveroo entering the Indian market to heat up India's food delivery space.

Moreover, according to a report by Morgan Stanley, Gurgaon-based Zomato has shot up its valuation to US $2.5 billion, which is thrice of its last valuation.

British Food Delivery Unicorn Startup To Set Shop in India

Just last month, we saw the acquisition of FoodPanda by Indian cab hailing firm Ola, a step to enter into online food delivery market.

While India's Ola and america's Uber instead of just doing cab aggregation, has entered into online food delivery market to heat up market preposition for old player like Zomato here comes the news that UK's biggest online food delivery firm Deliveroo, valued $1.1 billion, is on verge of entering Indian market.

One of the best funded European startups, Deliveroo is in the process of hiring a country head along with setting up a full-fledged team in India, said a report by Times of India citing two people aware of the development.

The report further said, "They are in the midst of getting on board a person who will spearhead the launch in India along with building a team. After securing new funding, expanding into new geographies was on the cards for them."

Founded 2013 by Americans Will Shu and Greg Orlowski. Deliveroo is based in London and operates in 84 cities in the UK alone. It has presence in almost every European countries and also in Australia, but in Asia it operates only in Hong Kong, Singapore and UAE, and now India, probably in few weeks.

In India, Deliveroo will compete with Zomato, Swiggy and Uber's UberEats and Ola's Foodpanda.

In September 2017, Deliveroo announced a $385 million Series F round. An additional $98 million was announced in November, bringing the total round to $480 million. In total, Deliveroo has raised about $954.5 million in six separate rounds of funding.

It is also notable that Zomato is competition to Deliveroo not just in India but in Australia, Italy, Ireland and UAE too. Zomato has its presence in 23 countries including India while Deliveroo is present in just 12 countries. Zomato is however less funded than Deliveroo but in terms of valuation both are more or less same as -- Deliveroo valued $1.1 billion and Zomato valued at $1 billion -- according to data by WSJ & Dow Jones venturesource billion dollar startup list updated on 1 Jan'18.

With Launch of Menus In 21 Cities, Jugnoo Takes A Big Leap In Restaurant Aggregation

Hyperlocal startup, Jugnoo has launched its restaurant aggregator vertical Menus in 21 cities. Within 4 months of its launch, the app-based service that enables customers to order food from restaurants in the city has been expanded into 21 cities across India and has enrolled over 5000 merchants including prominent brands like Pizza Hut, KFC, Subway, Burger King and Domino’s.

Commenting on the development, Samar Singla, Founder and CEO of Jugnoo said, “We already have a good customer base in Tier II and Tier III cities due to our Rides vertical. As we are adding more offerings to our platform, it is enabling us to grow really fast. With Menus, we are witnessing a steady week-on-week growth of 20% and plan to add around 1000 new merchants every week. Currently servicing over 2000 orders per day, the venture is a big boon for local merchants who are high on quality but don’t get enough visibility. Menus is helping them scale their business and fulfil their delivery requirements.”

Founded in November 2014, Jugnoo offers a range of services like rides, ready to eat meals, restaurant food delivery, grocery and B2B delivery. Headquartered in Chandigarh, the company is currently rendering its services in 40 cities of India and trending at 50,000 daily transactions. It has over 15,000 autos empanelled under the brand at present.

With this expansion, Jugnoo claims that it has become the only platform to offer this kind of service in Tier II and Tier III cities like Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Vadodara, Indore and Bhopal. Further, as Jugnoo is utilising the logistics network of its B2B vertical for its restaurant food delivery segment, it is able to facilitate home delivery option for merchants who don’t have transportation means to do that. For customers, the service is not only convenient but also more economical as they can avail huge discounts while placing orders via Jugnoo app.

“We keep coming up with a lot of festival campaigns that enable people living in metros to send gifts to their friends and relatives in smaller cities. Unlike other restaurant aggregators, who hire third-party delivery partners, we ensure quick and convenient delivery through our own B2B logistics service.” Samar added.

Jugnoo’s Menus service is currently available in Chandigarh, Indore, Jaipur, Gurgaon, Noida, Bhopal, Vadodara, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Kota, Surat, Ahmedabad, Faridabad, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Lucknow, Nashik, Ludhiana, Pune, Madurai and Nagpur. The platform targets to enrol a whopping 6,000 merchants and expand its reach to 60-80 cities by end of this year.

Google Launches Its Food-Delivery and Home Services App in India; Partners with Bigbasket, Grofers, UrbanClap

Google has launched a new food delivery and home services aggregator the India market. Called Areo, the app allows users to order food delivery and home services from their smartphones.

Areo lets users search for local restaurants and businesses like electricians, plumbers, and painters, and schedule their deliveries or appointments through the app. The app is available as a free download on the Google Play store and is currently operational in Bengaluru and Mumbai only, and for Android devices. The app support will be eventually rolled out to other cities of the country in the upcoming days.

Essentially, Areo is aggregator kind of app with all the food delivery and home services apps under one roof.

Notably, Areo has signed up few related startups like UrbanClap and Zimmber for home services and Freshmenu, Box8 & Faasos for food ordering.

Furthermore, Google Areo also help users to shop from several other grocery apps under one single platform. Be it Grofers or BigBasket, the users will be able to purchase anything and everything from these applications under one roof, add on a single cart and order. All this reduces the burden of downloading dozen of apps on your phone.

Notably, missing from the partners list however are prominent players like Zomato and Swiggy in food delivery and Amazon-backed Housejoy in home services.

A Google spokesperson said they are currently not charging partners for this service but they are yet to respond to our queries on how these partners were selected or do they plan to charge these partners in the future.

[Top Image - Shutterstock]

RocketFood Is New Food Delivery Startup With 30-Minutes Promise

You have been living an independent life for quite sometime now and the initial excitement of being on your own is now over. The harsh reality has hit you, the reality of life, the reality of cleaning, cooking and washing your own clothes. Amongst all these sad realisations, the one thing that you miss the most is your mom's love-filled home cooked food.

If you're one of those who belongs to this category, we have an awesome solution in place for you.

Known as Rocketfood, this food delivery startup is known for delivering home cooked meet restaurant type delicacies at a rocket speed, quite literally. The seven months old food delivery startup aims to change the way the country eats food. Their 30 minute delivery guarantee, convenient packaging are some of the things that sets it apart from other such companies operating in this domain.

North Indian food is famous for its ghee and delicious curries and this is also one of the many reasons that make it difficult to order this food for delivery. When it comes to home delivery, many of the north Indian's that I know also prefer south Indian, Italian or Chinese food over their north India delight just because of the fear of getting ghee soaked or leaky curry packets being delivered to them at their doorstep.

Rocketfood solves this problem by delivering the meals in a pizza box packaging, making it easy to eat north Indian food without any additional utensils or even in the comfort of your car while travelling or commuting.

Founded by friends of fifteen years, Anurag and Abhineet, the startup is currently bootstrapped but has some very interesting future plans in the pipeline.

[caption id="attachment_99506" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Anurag and Abhineet - Founders of RocketFood[/caption]

This Ghaziabad based startup is currently delivering its gastronomical delightful food only to the people of Ghaziabad and Noida. The startup has plans of expanding into metros like Mumbai and Delhi in the coming months.

As far as food is concerned, there's no complaining. I ordered two rocketfood boost veg for Rs. 180 each and was surprised with the quantity I got. The home meet restaurant taste of the food and its price range makes it extremely feasible to eat daily for your stomach as well as your pocket. I will surely order once again and try the other offerings on the menu.

So, if you're one of those who has got bored of the bland taste of your maid’s home cooked food and a restaurant’s food is too much torture on your tongue, then Rocketfood is a perfect match for you.

Chandigarh-Based CA-Turned-Entrepreneur Put Dabba (Tiffin-box) Service Online

Moving to a new city is tough but what is tougher is coping with the loss of your mom's home cooked loved-filled meals. One of the major problems that one faces while moving to another city or becoming independent is the problem of food.

Eating out every time is not an option given the huge amount of travelling cost involved. In such situations, most of us settle for dabba services that promise to give us the best of both worlds, the taste of home cooked food away from home and that too at a much cheaper rate than any other restaurant.

Anyone who has tried to avail a dabba service knows that finding a decent dabba place near your house or office is no easy task.While finding a dabba service, the priority is to find the one which offers good food at a decent price but in order to do so; one has to go through a tedious process of calling each and every service separately and comparing their price and menu.

This would have been your condition too a few months ago but with — SendMyTiffin you can leave your dabba (Tiffin-box) services problem behind forever.

[caption id="attachment_99216" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Anuj Jain (left) founder of SendMyTiffin.com during launch in Chandigarh[/caption]

Launched by a Chandigarh based charted accountant, Anuj Jain, the website brings tiffin services from Chandigarh, Panchkula, Zirakpur and Mohali on one single platform. Currently, Anuj has tied up 20 local tiffin service providers across cties like Panchkula, Mohali, Zirakpur and Chandigarh.

"It is an unorganised sector with only random numbers listed online and in a scattered way. Hardly anyone has their own dedicated website and there’s no information regarding menus either,” said Jain in a statement to Indian Express.
The website is quite interactive and easy to use. The listings include the menu, location and price of the dabba.

"We take online payments but the delivery starts in three to four days. As a special initiative, the vendors are offering a five-day paid trial offer so that the customer is not bound to eat the food for a month if the taste and service are not up to the mark,” added Jain .

A customer can book dabba services for all three meals of the day. Talking about future plans Jain said, "We will look at offering reviews from customers as well. The online food market has a huge potential with 200 million Internet users in India. We are also working on a mobile application that would enable customers to place orders on their phones too."

The Chandigarh-based startup is looking to increase number of tiffin service providers listing on website by 10-20% month on month by exploring and catering to moving to new locations.

Bootstrapped & Self-funded, Sendmytiffin.com as of now is a sole proprietorship owned by Anuj Jain. Anuj Jain is a chartered accountant with over 10 years experience in field of Accounting and Finance.

Zomato To Start Online Food Delivery In India From March

Online food delivery market in India is growing at fast pace, with recent acquisition of JustEat by FoodPanda is one such example that how online brands wants to rule Indian online food delivery space and now one of the biggest brand in restaurant discovery portal, Zomato is planning to start online food delivery in India as soon as next month of March.

In August last we at IndianWeb2 predicted that Zomato will soon star online food delivery services now Zomato has confirmed to TechCrunch that it will be rolling out the online food delivery service on March 16 with 2,000 restaurant partners in India and will begin to take orders for meals on behalf of restaurants listed on its portal and compete with with global leaders such as Foodpanda and Yelp.

"We are allocating $50 million (Rs 300 crore) to launch the online food ordering business, said Deepinder Goyal the chief executive officer of Zomato. "The service will also be launched overseas in the next few months."

Zomato is already testing deliveries with its staff internally, and has promised that it will roll out the service internationally soon.

The new online food delivery service will add a new stream of revenue for the Gurgaon-based company which will allow users to select dishes, see their movement from the kitchen to their table and pay with one click using a mobile app. Soon after India, Zomato will launch online food delivery services in Dubai, Manila, Jakarta and Sydney as well.

Zomato which currently only list restaurants and allows users to discover restaurants earns revenue through advertisements expects to clock revenue of Rs 100 crore this fiscal. With the new food ordering business - through which it will charge restaurants commissions ranging from 7.5% to 15% based upon the rating of the eatery - it will gain a new stream of income. "Revenues are likely to more than double next fiscal with this new business," said Goyal.