Bihar-based Online Meat Delivery Brand Freshsharp Raises $125K in Seed Fund from Ok Acquired, Others

Majaz Hassan, CEO & founder, Freshsharp

Current Round Funds take Valuation at USD 1 Million

Freshsharp, a Patna, Bihar-based start-up that sells fresh meat, seafood and other fresh animal protein online has raised seed fund of $125k through equity from lead investor Ok Acquired (lending partners by a corporate lending financial services company), and angel Investor Syed Akbar Raza Ahmed & Hussain Ahmad.

With this new round of seed funding the current valuation of Freshsharp now stands at $1 million. The brand aims to utilize the fresh funds for financial and technological assistance to elevate their businesses and enhance growth.

Founded by 22 year old founder in December 2020 Freshsharp Private Limited strengthens the traditional businesses and started expanding in 2022 in Bihar and West Bengal. Currently, Majaz Hassan is pursuing his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Engineering & Management, Kolkata.

On securing the fund, Majaz Hassan, CEO & founder, said, “Freshsharp constantly strives to enable the best of its services through Supply chain, technology, and services for the betterment of farmer communities, and traditional businesses. We will use the funds raised to strengthen our ecosystem to meet the necessities of small and traditional vendors, dealers/distributors, farmer communities, processors and retailers. This will further boost disbursements, given the various opportunities that we have at present. We are very humble and thankful to our investors for their trust and are grateful to them for their unstinting backing during our growth phase.”

(L-R) Majaz Hassan, CEO & founder, Freshsharp and Shubham bhagat Business development manager

 
Majaz Added, We are also dealing with the B2B segment, and have done numerous partnerships with restaurants, hotels, cloud kitchen, and institutions.

Commenting on the investment, Sujit Jha, Managing Director & CEO - Ok Acquired affirmed “We are delighted to support Freshsharp in its growth journey of empowering small businesses in the meat value chain. Freshsharp plays a significant role in providing new market avenues as well as payment assurance to the suppliers in the meat ecosystem. Their platform provides strength to the local ecosystem players helping them to grow the business without affecting their margins thus creating a positive impact. We look forward to continuing our participation along their journey.”

“Due to Freshsharp’s focus on quality and strong execution, its successfully creates a habituated and loyal customer base. We believe under the leadership of Majaz, Freshsharp is best positioned to serve the fresh meat and seafood needs of India, and our aim is to leverage the farmers along with delivering the quality product to customers." Said Hussain Ahmed (Angel Investor).

“We are very excited to partner with Majaz Hassan, and the team at Freshsharp as they take their brand to national markets and continue to grow in the domestic market. Our
the investment fits very well with Freshsharp and backing solid founders in this space,” said Sayed Akbar Raza Ahmed (Angel Investor).

Freshsharp was founded by MajazHasaan in 2020. Since its launch, it claims to witnessed 200% growth and has served consumers across Darbhanga, Patna and Kolkata. The start-up has built a supply chain network across several Indian cities to be able to procure meat and seafood, keep them fresh and deliver them within hours of the order. It’s among a group of growing startups that is disrupting the meat and seafood category, an area that has largely been unorganized and underserved.

Freshsharp is backed by a strong team from supply chain to technology, which comprises Shubham Bhagat, Mohammad Amanullah and others.

Best 5 Cloud Kitchens in Delhi-NCR That Are Using Eco-Friendly Food Packaging

From a waste management perspective, high-barrier, multi-layer, biodegradable food packaging could be a useful replacement for current multi-layered packaging that is non-recyclable and non-degradable. Unfortunately, most food packaging that is made from plastic, is typically thrown away rather than reused, recycled or compost. 

While take-away has become a dynamic source of revenue for many restaurants, owners of cloud kitchens believe that setting up such kitchens has proven to be beneficial as many people have been looking for decent quality, healthy, and home-cooked meals during the pandemic, from using biodegradable and recyclable packaging to sourcing local ingredients. Many small businesses begin by making their packaging eco-friendly as a first step toward making a food brand sustainable.

In the food delivery business, packaging serves the essential function of preserving food quality, preventing product spilling or leaking, and communicating the brand messaging to customers. The growing demand for delivery-only services ultimately means more orders, which can exercise pressure on ghost kitchens to deliver a premium experience, despite negligible interaction with customers. The unique selling point of any cloud kitchen is food delivery to the customer’s doorstep. An important element in food delivery is the packaging. The resources, design, superiority of packaging, and how it is handled play a vital role in communicating your brand values to customers. 

A 2020 report said that consumers overlook the environmental impact of food packaging. The report even challenged eaters who have sustainability on their minds to think beyond just the food they consume each day.

Let's take a look at the best five food delivery brands that are offering a restaurant experience to consumers by providing them with sustainable food packaging.

The Chhaunk

Mrs. Manjari Singh and Mrs. Hiranyamayi Shivani founded a cloud kitchen start-up in Gurgaon. The Chhaunk, which gives only Bihari food to all homemade food enthusiasts, such as Champaran meat mutton, litti chokha, Sattu ka sharbat, Bihari chicken curry, Sattu kachori, and methi puri, among others.

A mother's recipe has many essences, including relaxation, tranquility, and a plethora of love. The brand's goal is to provide a home-like ecosystem for the online food delivery industry. The brand has pledged to be a 100% green firm, with no things in the restaurant that would harm the environment. Their packaging is fully plastic-free and biodegradable. They use glass packaging to give lead-free, safe, freeze-proof, leak-proof food that is easily recyclable.

Madam Curry

Madam Curry is a new delivery-only startup launched by Ishaan Kapoor of The Purple Plate catering firm that focuses on innovating with classic recipes to give them a new spin. With Marie Curie as inspiration, Kapoor and his team want to attempt new recipes and approaches to make dining a healthier experience for their clients rather than strive for perfection. Their commitment to sustainable food distribution is amazing. 

The brand uses eco-friendly food packaging such as glass jars, earthenware, and birchwood cutlery that can be recycled and reused at home.

PotPot -Yum Yum

PotPot Yum Yum Indian Delivery provides pots and potlis of chaats, North Indian, and coastal food. Their flavorful, fresh food is made using organic and locally sourced ingredients. Pot Pot derives from the cooking pots, which are the vessels in which the food is cooked, the serving pots, which are the potlis in which the chaat is packed, and the pottery, which is the fine art used to manufacture the terracotta pots.

Pot-Pot Kitchen

Pot-Pot is based on the concept of sustainability. From their glass and terracotta pots to their paper bags and cardboard boxes, they made sure their packaging was easy to recycle and upcycle. This was no simple task.

Pitara Kitchen

Pitaara Kitchen, founded by chef Udit Maheshwari, is where you can eat wonderful North Indian cuisine without the greasy fare. Pitara Kitchen serves ethnic cuisine with a flavorful and nutritious twist. Pitaara Kitchen's credo is to combine traditional flavours with a modern twist. Their menu includes foods such as Jammu's Dogri Meat, Kaala Chana Kebab, Broccoli Makhani, Bacon & Kalimpong Cheese Kulcha, and more. They are supplying eco-friendly packaging throughout South Delhi.

Masala Story

The brand serves authentic North Indian cuisine to its customers, most of whom have twisted from dining-in to ordering-in during the pandemic. Some of their food offerings include freshly cooked Dum Biryani, kebabs, and phirni. One of the exclusive aspects of the company is its traditional style of cooking North Indian style food in earthen pots and then carefully delivering the food in the pots. This helps customers like the fare with a slight mess and a taste of authenticity. Their packing also adopts a sustainable and eco-friendly approach.

Zomato Raises ₹456 Crores in Funding from Temasek 's Subsidiary MacRitchie Investments

Zomato Private Limited,  the online food restaurant discovery and delivery platform, has raised ₹456 Crores (~ US $62.4 million) in funding from MacRitchie Investments Pte. Ltd., according to financial data accessed by business intelligence platform, Toflera.

MacRitchie Investments is a Singapore-based investment firm and a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited.

In January 2020, Gurugram-based Zomato raised $150 million from Alibaba-affiliate Ant Financial. According to an estimate by HSBC Global Research, Zomato's valuation has improved to nearly $5 billion, an addition of nearly $2 billion over its valuation during the previous fundraising round.

In 2018, Ant Financial invested $210 million in Zomato for 14.7 per cent stake and later raised the stake to 23 per cent.

Other Zomato investors include Info Edge India, Vy Capital, Sequoia Capital and Singapore-based Temasek.

Food Startup Homefoodi On-boards more than 250 Home Chefs

Homefoodi is a Mobile Application for Home Food made by Home Chefs that empowers and connects the society. Based out of Noida, the company offers a wide range of regional cuisines to facilitate cooking for those who prefer a healthy home-cooked meal. The endless variety of cuisines from the widest range of Home Food and Bakery products prepared by home chefs will leave you not just drooling but will also take care of you and your loved ones. With a significant increase in the number of Home chefs associated with Homefoodi, it has now touched the 250 mark.

During the inception of Homefoodi, they initiated a research across the Metro cities and met up with over 2000 respondents (Homemakers & Consumers) which indicated that over 10% of the Homemakers would be keen to start up a Home Kitchen if they had a platform that could address their challenges and help them do a business in a professional way. 

Having a concrete expansion plan, Homefoodi plans to be present across the top 10 cities of India with over 1 lakh Home Chefs on their platform within the next 2 years. Starting from the grass-root level Homefoodi is climbing up its own way to triumph aiming to create India’s biggest self-employment chain by creating a Culture of Home Chefs through a mobile platform to earn from home being a Home Chef.

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

Uber Acquiring SF-based Food Delivery Startup Postmates for $2.65 Bn

American multinational ride-hailing company, Uber Technologies, is acquiring Postmates, a San Francisco-based food delivery startup, for $2.65 billion, in an all stock deal.

Launched in 2011, Postmates is one of many on-demand delivery companies in the United States providing delivery from restaurants and stores that previously did not offer food delivery.

The acquisition deal is subjected to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021. Uber said it is "committed to provide bridge financing to Postmates" as it waits for the process of obtaining regulatory approvals.

Postmates stockholders representing a majority of Postmates’ outstanding shares have committed to support the acquisition deal. Postman's investors include Uncork Capital, Russell Cook, Naval Ravikant, Matrix Partners, David Wu, AngelPad, Tiger Global, Blackrock and Slow Ventures, among others.

Postmates, which accounted for 8% of the US meal delivery market, was last valued at $2.4 billion, when it raised $225 million in a private funding round, in September 2019.

Consumer Agri-Tech Startup ‘Fraazo’ Introduces ‘Society Stores’ to Minimise Touch Points for Supply Chain Hygiene

Fraazo introduces a tech-driven ‘Society Stores’ to continue providing supplies of fresh fruits and vegetables in societies/apartments amid lockdown

With a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases across Maharashtra, people fear to venture out from the safety of their homes. Since vegetables and fruits are an essential need for every household, a majority of the population is opting for doorstep delivery as a safer option to fulfill their needs. However, given the Covid-19 pandemic, customers are seeking safety in terms of hygienically handled food. Fraazo - a Mumbai based Consumer Agri-Tech startup has introduced a new feature- ‘Society Stores’ to reduces multiple handling and unhygienic treatment of our foods to deliver health and happiness to their customers’ homes. Under this farm-fresh fruits and vegetables are directly supplied to registered societies/apartments, thereby reducing touchpoints across the supply chain.

To set up a ‘Society Store’ in any society/apartment, users can log on to its society-registration weblink: http://society.fraazo.com/ enter details of their society, and after an internal viability assessment, Fraazo establishes their store in registered societies as per time and day of their convenience. To make the process of buying fruits and vegetable hassle-free, it also offers a ‘Pick-up’ feature on its application, wherein customers can control the entire process of buying fruits and vegetables - right from choosing the order, to make the payment and even picking it up through the Fraazo App - delivering a no-touch experience! The brand ensures Farm to Customer Doorstep Delivery is executed within 18hours, to keep the promise of fresh products to every kitchen.

Mr. Atul Kumar, CEO & Co-Founder, Fraazo, Consumer Agri-Tech said, “Fraazo is a quality-focused and hygiene driven platform for farm-fresh food to every kitchen. Realizing the importance of providing hygienic and quality food in the Covid-19 lockdown, we are innovating with our ‘Society Stores’ to servicepeople who are left with no options for trusted essentials. Our society stores have got an encouraging response and we are grateful to all the society committees for supporting our efforts and ensuring their members follow strict measures of social distancing while choosing from our variety of farm-fresh vegetables and fruits.”

Fraazois currently serving 60+ societies in this difficult situation during the lockdown and is already and is consistently working towards taking this number to 100+ societies across Mumbai. Another special feature introduced by Fraazois their ‘Express Delivery Service’ to ensure quick and contact-less delivery right at people’s doorstep. Under this service, the brand ensures the fastest last-mile delivery in just 2 hours. Given the manpower constraints during the lockdown, Fraazo is providing Express Delivery at its full capacity. 

Started as a store offering premium quality farm-fresh vegetables and fruits in the posh neighborhood of Powai, Mumbai in 2016, ‘Fraazo’ adopted a digital-first approach in October 2019 and has since expanded its reach across Andheri and key locations in Pune. With a strong focus on Quality, Freshness, and a large variety of SKUs, Fraazo is a store-turned-consumer agri-tech startup that helps to create market linkages for farmers by streamlining the supply chain while also bringing efficiency and transparency to the entire value chain.  The brand holds a strong sales channel app, society stores, front stores, and third-party app to ensure better connectivity with end consumers.

Fraazo App is available on both Android and iOS platforms.

Started as a store offering premium quality farm-fresh vegetables and fruits in the posh neighborhood of Powai, Mumbai in 2016, ​‘Fraazo’ adopted a digital-first approach in October 2019 and has since expanded its reach across Andheri and key locations in Pune. With a strong focus on quality Farm Fresh and Hygienic vegetables and fruits, Fraazo is a consumer agri-tech startup brand offering unparalleled convenience from the safety of your home. With a farm to doorstep delivery time of 18 hrs, Fraazo has developed a technology-led backbone for its value chain enabling point-to-point control, while its dark stores located in neighborhoods enable express last-mile delivery to end customers. Fraazo endeavors to provide customers with Farm fresh and hygienic foods at a place and time of your convenience.

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.

Despite Challenges, Manipur's Start-ups doing Home Delivery during Lockdown

Driven by young entrepreneurs, start-ups in Manipur are rising to the occasion to home deliver essential items and groceries, overcoming myriad challenges during the lockdown in the absence of major players likes BigBasket, Grofers, Amazon in the state.

Malemm, FoodWifi, Hummingbird are among the app-based start-ups which have been granted permission by the state government to carry out home deliveries during the lockdown to prevent spread of COVID-19, which has also accelerated their business expansion plans.

Langam Lukram, founder of Malemm, had returned to Manipur after graduating in business administration from Middlesex University, UK to take up organic farming and home deliveries of the produce.

The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown has made him tweak his original plan a bit to meet overwhelming needs of consumers.

"When we started, it was meant to be for home delivery of only organic vegetables. We had tied up with around seven farmers and grew different types of vegetables in a chemical free manner," Lukram told PTI.

However, things changed suddenly after the lockdown.

"Initially, we were doing just about 20 deliveries per day as we started in a small way with plans to double that by end of March. After the lockdown, we suddenly received around 600 calls for order in a single day, which we were in no position to fulfil," the 22-year-old said.

The company decided to restrict to taking around 200 orders, and started deliveries with a small team. However, executing those deliveries continued till late evenings.

"Then we ran into supply issues as our organic vegetables stock ran out and had to pause our deliveries for two days. With demand for just vegetables, not necessarily organic ones, rising, we expanded our sourcing and now we are delivering even normally grown vegetables as well," Lukram said.

He added that Malemm would like to get back to its original core business of growing and home delivering organic foods, once the coronavirus crisis is over.

Similarly, Kennedy Oinam, co-founder of FoodWifi, also had to adapt to the dynamic situation.

"We are basically food delivery service providers through tie-ups with restaurants. When the lockdown happened we had to accelerate our plans to diversify into home delivery of groceries and essential items," said Oinam, whose father took voluntary retirement to build capital to fund his son's entrepreneurial dreams.

During the lockdown, he said FoodWifi has been fulfilling around 80-100 deliveries per day despite several challenges.

"One of our biggest challenges was that of delivery personnel, as parents of our staff were reluctant to let their sons go out our during the health crisis. So, my co-founder Bickychand Khangjarakpam and myself, we started doing it after hiring a van. In the following days more staff joined us," said the young entrepreneur who once worked as a chef in a local restaurant from where he got the idea of doing home delivery of food.

The other hurdle was that of inventory as distributors were open only on alternate days, Oinam said, adding "we had to stand in long queues to get items and we could only sell what we could get from the distributors, limiting the choice for our customers".

"Also, our delivery boys despite having permits were stopped many a times by local police when they went out as there is lack of clarity in the interpretation of orders from authorities," he added.

Hummingbird co-founder Fisher Laishram said getting approval from authorities in itself was a time consuming process, but once that was done it was all about getting the staff trained about following health and hygiene protocals while delivering at doorsteps during the coronavirus crisis.

"We have also faced problems with delivery personnel as people are reluctant to venture out during these times," said Laishram, who spent seven years in New York for higher studies and also honed skills of running start-up during his stint with Sprinklr.

At present, Hummingbird is handling about 80 food orders on an average, he said adding fuel availability has also been a huge hurdle with many of the petrol pumps closed during the lockdown.

Despite the challenges, as Oinam puts it, apart from the business aspect, it is about being able to help people in the times of crisis that has been more fulfilling.

"Some people blessed us, some wished us good luck and many advised us to stay safe and follow strict hygiene protocol out of concern for us and we really appreciate that," he signed off with a smile. PTI RKL

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

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

Amazon Leads $575 Mn Investment in U.K.’s Deliveroo

Amazon set to be largest investor in Deliveroo’s Series G funding round, according to an emailed statement from Deliveroo, reported Bloomberg.

London-based foodtech firm is raising total $575 million with participation from Amazon alongside existing investors T Rowe Price, Fidelity Management and Research Company, and Greenoaks. Deliveroo has raised a total of about $1.53 Bn to date.

The exact size of investment from Amazon's side was not available, but E-Commerce giant is the biggest investor in Deliveroo's latest round of fund raising.

Deliveroo, which is one of Europe's fastest growing tech companies, would use the funds raised for international expansion and improving its service and to grow its delivery-only kitchens business.

Deliveroo founder and chief executive Will Shu said he was looking forward to working with "such a customer-obsessed organisation" like Amazon.

Amazon said it was attracted by Deliveroo's "innovative technology service".

Deliveroo has raised a total of over $1.5 Bn till now.

Swiggy May Raise Fresh $600 Mn from Existing Investor Naspers

India's biggest food ordering and delivery company, Swiggy, could raise a fresh round of funding close to $600 million or even more marking its biggest fundraise to date. The speculated funding will be born by Swiggy's existing investor and largest share holder Naspers of South Africa, reported Bloomberg today, citing people privy to the ongoing development at Naspers.

Naspers, which is planning to increase its stake in Swiggy, could also buy stakes from Swiggy's other existing investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners, said the report. Nasper has 22% stake in Swiggy, as of March 2018.

Besides Nasper, Tencent Holdings Ltd. can also participate in this possible fundraise of Swiggy. It is to be noted that Naspers owns a 31% controlling stake in Tencent.

If this funding falls through then this will be Swiggy's third round of funding within a year. The food delivery startup had last raised $210 million in June this year and funding round was led by Digital Sky Technologies and Naspers. Prior to this, Swiggy had raised $100 million again from Naspers, along with China's Meituan-Dianping.

This plausible fundraise report comes at time when just a few days back Swiggy's biggest India rival Zomato had raised a fresh capital of $210 million from Alibaba's payment affiliate Ant Financial.

Naspers, which also has shares in India's travel firm MakeMyTrip and classifieds business OLX, has targeted India for investments as the company seeks to repeat its Tencent and Flipkart success. Notably, the company made a $1.6 billion profit from the sale of its 11% stake in Indian e-commerce startup Flipkart to Walmart, earlier this year.

Swiggy, which currently valued at more than $2 billion, is also planning to enter hyperlocal delivery market with its upcoming service called 'Dash', through which it will deliver medicines and grocery.

Founded in 2014, by Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy and Rahul Jaimini, Swiggy is one of the fastest entrants into the billion dollar club and raised a total of $465 million since it started.

EArlier this month, it was also reported that UberEATS, the food delivery unit of Uber, had held talks with Swiggy for possible acquisition of later, a few months ago. However, the acquisition could not materialize and now Swiggy is reportedly closing a fresh funding round from Chinese investor and WeChat owner Tencent.

Meanwhile, Zomato is building its own digital wallet to prevent its users going out of its ecosystem while making payments online.

[Top Image - AdageIndia.com]

Food Startup FreshMenu May Raise $25-30 Mn in Fresh Funding

Bangalore headquartered online food ordering startup FreshMenu is reportedly in talks to raise $25-30 million from new and existing investors. The company, which last raised $16.5 Mn in 2016, is backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Zodius Capital.

The startup is expected to use the upcoming funds to rapidly ramp up its service, especially infrastructure and technology and hire new people in to its team.

Freshmenu, which has raised mere $17 million in just two rounds, was valued at roughly $40-$50 million in 2016. The company is doing relatively better then its counterparts. It is operational in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi-NCR and works cloud kitchen concept with 22 kitchens in Bangalore, 9 in Mumbai as well in Delhi/Gurgaon.

Founded in 2014 by Rashmi Daga, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Freshmenu is consistently trying to rope in new investors and raise fresh funds it required after 4 years of its existence.

In April this year, it was rumoured that the company is in talks with cab-haling firm Ola to get acquired or possible buyout option but then eventually nothing fruitful has been heard about same.

Last November, it was also reported that Freshmenu has roped in Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd (BCCL) as a new investor to raise funding of Rs. 1.65 Crore but then too the deal went off.

Freshmenu competes with the likes of HolaChef, Faasos and InnerChef. Recently, at time when food tech startup like Yumist had shutdown, FreshMenu has found a place in India’s top 5 food-tech startups in terms of revenues.

Last month, food tech startups raised funds include HungerBox raised $4.5 million in a Series A funding round led by South Korean investment firm Neoplux and India’s private equity fund Sabre Partners.

CCube Angels Network, a Singapore based angel investing network has invested Rs.3.5 crore in Inner Being,a Nutri-food start up based out of Hyderabad

[Top Image - Livemint.com]

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

Mumbai Dabbawalas To Soon Launch Startup in Food Processing Sector

In 1890 Bombay, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche started a lunch delivery service with about a hundred men called as 'Dabbawala', which became India's first food delivery startup successfully running up till nowdays. Now, after 125-years of successfully delivering lunch tiffins across Mumbai and its suburbs, the Mumbai dabbawalas are setting up a start-up business, in the food processing sector, reported Times of India.

Ritesh Andre, who was representing the president of the Mumbai dabbawalas, revealed the startup plans of Dabbawalas and said the startup will supply organic produce, possibly organic vegetables.

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

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

Notably, Mumbai Dabbawalas too has a Fortune 500 clientele including Deliotte, KPMG, Philips, Siemens and Uber, Ola too, among plenty of others.

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

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

Recently, Mumbai Dabbawalas partnered with Paytm Payments Bank, a digital bank from PayTM which provides zero balance accounts and zero charges on digital transactions. As part of this partnership, around 5000 dabbawalas is now able to collect instant payments for their Dabba service through Paytm QR.

In 2016 after launch of PM Modi's Digital India initiative, the dabbawalas adopted the technology through their ‘Digital Dabbawala’ website. The website launched is catering customers in Mumbai and Thane areas – they can register themselves online to enjoy Dabbawala’s service at their doorstep. This will also make payments easier through the online channel and thereby boost the government drive to transform India into a cashless economy. There are currently over 5,000 Dabbawalas working tirelessly in Mumbai delivering over 200,000 lunch boxes each day. With Digital Dabbawala we expand our delivery from just dabbas to last mile delivery of Digital Services.

The Forbes magazine gave the dabbawalas a Six Sigma performance rating or a 99.99999 percent of precision, which means they make one error in 16 million deliveries! In the last 125 years, there has not been a single instance of a lunchbox that has not been delivered to its destination. The New York Times reported in 2007 that the 125-year-old dabbawala industry continues to grow at a rate of 5–10% per 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]

Pune-Based BhojanShala Is Yet Another Food-Tech Startup But With Subscription Model

The subscription model is like a boon for this fast paced generation. We just need to start it once and then sit back, forget and enjoy forever. While, until a few years ago, you might have had your newspaper, cable and other utilities on subscription basis, what might come as a surprise to you, you can now even order food on subscription basis. Sounds impossible? Well, making this unique thing possible is a Pune based startup called Bhojanshala.in- The Online Meal Store.

Designed with an aim of getting people rid of the daily hassle of "What do we have to eat today?" or "Aaj kya khana hai?", this Online Meal Store lets you order your favourite meals from nearby eateries, on Daily & Weekly/ Monthly package basis, and that too at extremely pocket friendly prices.

The startup's unique subscription model where one can buy meals on Daily & Weekly/Monthly packages basis is the one thing that sets the them apart from the flood of companies/startups operating in their domain. One can also opt for regional meal packages as well, such as Maharashtrian, Rajasthani, Gujarati and Punjabi meals.

Founded by Engineering graduates Nikhil Jaroli and Aniket Anandani, Bhojanshala.in is a completely Bootstrapped startup for now. Its subscription model can be availed on Cash on Delivery basis and there are lots of regional cuisines variety of eateries to choose from.

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.