India food-tech market to grow at 12% CAGR till 2021

Blockchain technology has become increasingly vital in today’s era, offering a robust tracking methodology and the ability to provide proof of authenticity for goods. Consumers can trace the journey of their products from farm to table with unprecedented accuracy. Unlike traditional paper ledgers, blockchain acts as a digital ledger, reducing human error and mitigating risks of fraud in both the quality and quantity of food. It enhances transparency and efficiency within the food supply chain, granting consumers access to comprehensive information about the origin and journey of their food.

Moreover, blockchain improves food safety by facilitating the traceability of contaminated products and reduces food waste by ensuring that food is consumed before spoiling. It also strengthens communication between consumers and the supply chain, leading to better service quality and customer satisfaction.

Revolution of Blockchain and Holografs

“Blockchain is revolutionizing the food supply chain and Holografs is at the forefront of this transformation. Traditional supply chains are riddled with inefficiencies, where tracing the origin and journey of food products is time-consuming and prone to error. Holografs, a blockchain-based solution, solves this by offering an immutable, decentralized ledger that tracks every step of the process. From the farm to the consumer, every movement is logged with precision, ensuring food safety, authenticity, and transparency,’’ said Akshay Dhoot, Co-founder, Digilion Technologies who added that Holografs integrates advanced tracking technologies like QR codes, RFID tags, and microdots, providing real-time updates on the status of food products.

This visibility helps companies monitor storage conditions, transportation, and handling, drastically reducing risks of contamination, spoilage, and counterfeiting. By automating compliance reporting and simplifying the verification process, Holografs ensures that food companies can meet regulatory standards more efficiently while offering consumers peace of mind. However, a challenge persists.

Explaining about his views, Saurabh Doshi, Cofounder of Virtualness, said, “Blockchain technology is poised to revolutionize the food supply chain by addressing critical barriers such as transparency, traceability, and food safety. As consumers increasingly demand authentic data about their food sources, blockchain offers a unique solution by creating an immutable record of every transaction from farm to table. This not only empowers consumers to verify the integrity of their food but also enhances accountability among all stakeholders involved - from farmers to retailers leading to ethical sourcing practices and trusted sustainability commitments.”

Various Barriers

The complexity of implementing blockchain is fragmented, global food supply chains, with multiple stakeholders across regions, is a significant barrier. Costs of integration and concerns about data security further complicate adoption. Additionally, scalability remains a concern, as large-scale food supply chains generate significant transaction volumes that blockchain networks need to manage efficiently.

Despite the many barriers, Holografs is helping reshape food safety and traceability. Its blockchain-based system can foster consumer trust and improve accountability. As the technology evolves, trends point toward greater adoption of blockchain solutions like Holografs across the food industry is growing.

Food Safety & Traceability

“Food safety and traceability require a high degree of trust and timeliness. At Virtualness, we recognize the potential of our platform to enhance integrity through robust and dynamic verification capabilities. Our technology enables organizations to establish trust via smart contracts which can be validated by a click of a button,” commented Doshi who added that our dynamic certificates can change labels to reflect the expiry of perishable items thus ensuring every product can be trusted at a glance. 

Industry-wide collaboration and deep integration of blockchain with existing systems are paramount. With this in mind, Virtualness offers enterprise grade workflow integration which can be easily deep linked to any system, streamlining operations and automating processes.

By integrating generative AI with blockchain, we can automate compliance checks and streamline operations, leading to fair trade and reducing costs.

Ensure data storage

Blockchain technology has already been implemented across numerous food chains and is expected to grow further. It reduces costs for retailers and manufacturers by minimizing delays and enhancing reliability. The transparency provided by blockchain makes food recall procedures more efficient. Additionally, blockchain ensures that consumers receive their money’s worth and that their funds are not supporting unethical practices such as slavery or child labor as it is crucial to ensure that the data stored on the blockchain is of high quality to maintain consistency and accessibility of information when needed.

Boom in Digital Economy

The digital economy, driven by AI and blockchain, offers a unique opportunity to restructure food production systems for sustainability. By fostering innovation, collaboration, and data-driven decision-making, we can create a more resilient and environmentally friendly food industry.AI and blockchain are powerful tools that can significantly contribute to sustainable food production. By leveraging these technologies, we can enhance efficiency, ensure transparency, and reduce environmental impact, ultimately creating a more sustainable and resilient food system for future generations.

Conclusion

In the future, every food business will incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to produce food that is safer, more sustainable, and customized for each customer. This technological revolution has changed the ways in which we produce, distribute, and consume food. Food safety and quality have significantly increased thanks to AI's ability to swiftly assess enormous volumes of data and make decisions.

Blockchain technologies preserve data that is irreversible and transparent to all stakeholders, by providing the data its overall uniqueness and legitimacy.

The rich tapestry of India's culinary traditions is undergoing a remarkable transformation, all thanks to the innovative strides of food technology. With the Indian food-tech market projected to soar from $3.1 billion in 2020 to a staggering $20.2 billion by 2025, the landscape is witnessing a flavorful revolution.

The driving forces behind this remarkable growth are manifold. A surge in demand for convenience food, coupled with the rise of cashless payments and a heightened awareness of health and wellness, forms the bedrock of this transformation.

Smart Vending Machines: The Game Changer

At the heart of this culinary metamorphosis lie smart vending machines. Predicted to grow at a CAGR of 18% from 2022 to 2028 in India, these machines are heralding a new era. They aren't just serving food; they're reshaping traditions and expanding horizons.

Imagine vending machines that offer a wide array of health-conscious snacks and meals – salads, fruits, and yogurt. The era of convenience is upon us, resonating especially with the increasingly fast-paced lives of Indians.

Preserving Heritage, One Package at a Time

These machines are also gatekeepers of India's rich culinary heritage. By offering pre-packaged versions of beloved classics like vada pav, samosas, and idli, smart vending machines are safeguarding traditional flavors for urban dwellers.

But the real magic happens when tradition meets innovation. Foodtech companies, in partnership with chefs and food experts, are crafting recipes that fuse traditional Indian ingredients with modern culinary technology. The outcome? A symphony of flavors that captivates both young and old palates.

Tech Revolutionizes Safety and Preservation

Food technology's impact isn't confined to taste alone. It's bolstered food safety and preservation techniques, extending the shelf life of our meals and minimizing spoilage risks. From pasteurization to vacuum sealing, these advances ensure that our meals stay safe and appetizing, even across long distances.

Health is a driving force in culinary evolution, and food technology plays a pivotal role. Scientific research and technological prowess have created techniques that enhance nutritional profiles and create healthier alternatives. Fortified staple foods combat nutrient deficiencies, while plant-based meat substitutes cater to conscious consumers.

Cooking with Innovation

Advanced kitchen appliances like sous vide machines and combi-ovens have redefined cooking techniques. Precision, even cooking, and heightened flavors are now attainable, thanks to technology. The marriage of science and culinary arts has led to visually striking dishes through molecular gastronomy techniques.

Personalization on the Plate

Customization reigns supreme in the culinary realm, empowered by food technology. From tailored meal kits to personalized nutrition plans, technology grants greater control over diets. Mobile apps offer recipes, dietary information, and suggest meals aligned with individual preferences and restrictions.

Vantage view

The marriage of food and technology is a potent recipe for change. With smart vending machines redefining culinary accessibility, foodtech companies crafting fusion masterpieces, and technology influencing everything from preservation to presentation, we stand on the cusp of a flavorful future.

However, as food technology continues to flourish, it's essential to strike a balance between tradition and innovation. While the culinary landscape evolves, preserving cultural heritage is paramount. Culinary evolution should reflect both our diverse cultural tapestry and our ever-evolving palates. In this endeavour, let's ensure that every bite is a harmonious blend of tradition and innovation, a journey that enriches our taste buds and honors our culinary heritage.

The past two years have been brutal for the Hospitality Industry. Between covid variants and lockdowns, the business has been hit repeatedly. Foreign visitors are daunted by the idea of getting stranded in a new country, business travellers have adjusted to zoom calls, and many travellers are petrified of infection from public spaces. Millions of hotel rooms lie unoccupied, and hoteliers have struggled even in the anticipated high season.

We witnessed glimpses of revenge travel towards the end of 2021, but the rapid onset of Omicron pushed people back into their homes. With the New Normal, we are seemingly farther away from the good old days with every passing year. In times like these, it becomes critical for businesses to discover what’s next, creating an edge over competitors, and allowing them to not just survive, but thrive.

TURNING TO TECH

Unless you spent 2021 under a rock, you would have definitely heard the word “NFT” at some point. Yes, the year Blockchain became accessible to mainstream audiences, crypto became a legit investment option, and Cryptopunk NFTs became the new Rolex. Over the past year, we witnessed many NFT launches by celebrities, brands and businesses. It hasn’t mattered what industry they come from - entertainment, sports, tech, or FMCG. NFTs are proving to be the latest way for companies to show that they are in sync with the times, and capable of adapting to the latest technology.

So, what are NFTs & how do they affect you?

NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token, a unique digital asset that represents ownership on the blockchain. Anything digital can be an NFT - from artworks to music, to land deeds or entry tickets. From the moment of creation, the NFT becomes recorded in the permanent ledger of the blockchain, and it’s ownership can be traced in every transaction. This creates transparency and authenticity, reducing fraud and allowing for rightful ownership.

The Non-Fungible aspect means any NFT cannot be replaced or exchanged with another. Each NFT carries an individual code - so even if you have two copies of the same NFT, they can be identified with their respective code. This makes NFTs different from cryptocurrency tokens (which are fungible and can be interchangeable), as well as, as digital art (where copies cannot be authenticated).

NFTs are a true revolution in bringing a complex technology to global audiences in such a simplified manner. Every industry is now gearing up to leverage NFTs to grow their business, and the Hospitality Industry is not lagging behind.

NFT IN HOSPITALITY

The Power of Blockchain is such that it entitles every business, big or small, to leverage technology with equal opportunity. With NFTs coming into the limelight, the traditional hospitality market is ripe for disruption - and it needn’t commence from the big players. From the announcement of first NFT restaurant opening in 2023 to hotels and restaurant brands accepting crypto currencies, one can use NFTs to promote, elevate and grow your business. What matters more is how early you adapt to this tech advancement. The first-mover advantage will be significant as always, and you can almost compare this time to the Social Media boom of 2010’s.

When Instagram first came in, not many could understand the utility of business accounts. But today, Insta-savvy hotels and restaurants are creating a revolution in the space. We are at a similar cusp in technology today with NFTs. Businesses that learn to harness this technology will move ahead of competition, and expand their business to new verticals.

EXPLORING NFTS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

If you are convinced to jump onto the NFT bandwagon, let’s talk about some tangible use-cases for NFTs for the Hospitality sector. As of now, most NFTs we see in the market are collectibles - whether they are graphical artworks, celebrity pictures, or brand photography. They are based on aspirational value, and create an investment opportunity for collectors. Now ofcourse, you can also go down the Collectibles route by photographing your property, creating artworks of your rooms etc, but there wouldn’t be much incentive for collectors to value them.

Collectible NFTs were the norm for 2021 but going into 2022, Utility is going to become a keyword. What does the NFT do, what are the uses, why should I value this NFT - these are going to be some salient points to answer. Here are 9 ways to bring NFTs into your business:

Virtual Hotels

As people continue to stay home, virtual travel is gaining ground quickly. People can explore different spaces across the globe with their virtual avatars - and this is becoming more popular as the Metaverse. Hotels can harness this digital experience to improve the customer’s first interaction and discover new audiences. Replicating the property as a virtual asset, hotels can allow travelers to tour the hotel, view and choose rooms of their choice, and make the booking receipt as an NFT.

By giving visitors a chance to evaluate the property beforehand and explore the hidden gems, smaller hotels can attract more audiences. The traveler can even swap/sell the reservation NFT if their plans alter - this P2P NFT Sale also reduces the pressure on hotels to rebook for cancellations.

Visitor Logs

For decades, the golden customer has been the recurring customer. Hotels thrive on loyal customers who keep coming back, and spread the good word. Hotels build strong Loyalty Programs to retain their customers, but it does become a massive data operation.

NFTs can revolutionize this feature by creating a permanent record of visitors on the blockchain. Hotels can issue an NFT for visitors, featuring all the required information in the metadata. Guests can also hold the NFT as their loyalty badge. This can be a critical tool for Hotels with multiple branches as they use the NFT data to assess returning customers and reward them for their loyalty.

Ease of Operations

Apart from Visitor Logs, there is a whole lot of tedious data management for hotels. Tokenization-as-a-service can save you money and time. Hotels can also improve their back-end operations through the blockchain. Creating a perfect replica of your hotel virtually can enable you to manage daily tasks like visitor logs, housekeeping, maintenance, supplies etc.

Using NFTs and Smart Contracts, hotels can automate operations and reduce the workload of their real-world employees. You can foresee hotel managers delegating daily tasks to their digital twin and focus on more pressing matters. This also allows hotel owners to keep a closer eye on operations in their absence.

The New Room Key/ Booking Codes

We have seen the transition of hotels from metal keys to card keys. While losing metal keys could cause a disaster due to limited copies, card keys come with their own set of problems. An environmental burden due to the careless use of plastic, card keys are also frequently lost or erased by gadget contact. At some hotels, the main task of the Reception is to keep reviving these keys.

Now, no one has to lose their key anymore. NFTs will be able to replace the room key, with smart access for the period of the stay, and expiring as the stay ends. The NFT can also grant the visitor access to special areas in the hotel, such as saunas & gyms as per their booking. This NFT can be burnt at the end of their stay, or kept by the guest as memorabilia.

Revamping Hotel Booklets

Another traditional concept that fits well into the world of NFTs is Hotel Booklets. Hotels issue bulky hard-copies of booklets that are an environmental strain and easily lost/damaged. NFT Booklets bring easier management & logistics for both the hotel and the user. NFTs can clearly display the purpose, usage and validity for these booklets, eliminating bulky records and disputes over expiry.

NFTs also allow for easier gifting, and would encourage people to gift Hotel Booklets to friends and family, thereby helping you grow your business.

Promotions & Gifting

Gifting can also be extended to a complete experience. Through the pandemic, more and more people have delighted in offering their loved ones a retreat or special staycation experience. Hotels can leverage NFTs to allow people across the world to gift special stays to their friends and family.

In addition to this, one can also use NFTs for promotional strategies and branding activities like offering a one-night complimentary stay etc.

Tapping Into the Sentiment

The post-covid era has taught us all to cherish life and focus on our emotional well-being. Keeping the sentiment alive, Hotel NFTs can become souvenirs from a memorable stay or meal.

As we go along, NFTs will rise from “what you own” to “what you experienced, where you’ve been” and include other social leverages that come along with it. Hospitality has a chance to make these experiences into a timeless memory.

Optimising High Season
Every Hotel leverages peak seasons, favorable for tourists, by charging premium prices for the period. Ofcourse the pandemic has made this calendar unpredictable. To balance this turbulence, hotels can leverage NFTs and auction rooms rather than flat pricing. You can host NFT Auctions for your premium rooms & suites, and important dates, offering a special experience for the highest bidder.

Fancy yourself a Hotel Owner

The Hospitality industry requires intensive capital to function, along with easy inflow of cash. While traditional models make financing and equity investments a daunting task for property owners, NFTs offer an exciting new model to explore.

Hotels can create new ownership models of Part Ownership & Community Ownership through NFTS. The Property can be divided into NFTs, in terms of area or rooms, allowing people to own a part of the entire property. They can have incentives like free room nights as investment returns. This allows property owners to bring quick cash liquidity into the business, while regular people can enjoy the thrill of “owning” a hotel.

Market in the Metaverse

Hotels are not just about physical advertising anymore. Businesses can advertise on virtual hoardings, highways, and malls within various metaverse projects to bring attention to their property. They can issue special NFTs and NFT advertising to attract clients. With Metaverse blowing up as the next big thing in the tech space, there are a lot of NFT opportunities to leverage in the space.

The Global Hospitality Industry stands at the cusp of the blockchain revolution, where the way we look at it will change forever. We witnessed the rise of NFTs in 2021, and with passing time, it’s safe to say that NFTs are not just a fad, but a game-changer for industries across the board. The question boils down to how quickly businesses can embrace this technology to improve their margins, and attract new audiences. Exciting times ahead !

It all began in 2011 when Parthiv Patel together with Apurv Patel started Petpooja as a food delivery platform for corporates. With this business model, they achieved a respectable mark in two years: serving over 200 corporates by partnering with 300+ restaurants. But, in the process, they realized that because of the lack of appropriate technology, there were tremendous operational inefficiencies and the restaurant processes were not scalable. A close look at these restaurants’ daily struggles led them to innovate the brand into coherent Restaurant Management software.

From providing an operating system to restaurants that includes inventory management, customer relationship management (CRM), online ordering, payments, and analytics, Petpooja’s software provides service to over 25,000 restaurants across India, UAE, and Africa, with over 1.5 million daily orders logged on the platform recording an annualized gross merchandise value of $2.5 billion.

Building an omni-channel approach

Before starting a business and going into the deep there’s always a question in an entrepreneur’s mind on which channel should they build their brand on. In the last 2-3 years, we have seen businesses expand themselves in the online space to larger extent. Also, brands/players that were into an offline setup have entered into the online space. “Every channel is important to engage with customer but we have seen more and more hybrid approach is coming when opening a brand,” said Parthiv Patel Co-Founder, Petpooja by adding that a typical cloud-kitchen with only online presence has the highest failure rate as compared to a hybrid concept that has both online and offline presence. Also, if you look at examples and data,  in the last 2-3 years we have seen major brand like Anjan Chatterjee’s Speciality Restaurants, Impresario Handmade Restaurants and Foodlink Restaurants enter into the delivery/cloud-kitchen segment.

First and more important thing for a brand is to connect with the right set of the customer. And as a brand you need to reach out to them through every possible channel- SMS, Social media, Whatsapp, email and so on. Also, when we look at large restaurant organizations; they are always keen on building customer relationships and are poised for marketing and experimenting with techniques and ideas. But for smaller brands where they do not want to focus on marketing and customer engagement; it is need of the hour. And, that’s where the loyalty apps, CRM, POS etc enter into the market to scale the business to connect to new set of customers so at the end of the day you can deliver a fantastic experience to the customer.

Content is the power

“Seamless integration is important. You have to literally build a gold content before posting it online. Many a time what we have seen is that brand has ignored the content creation forgetting that it is the base, it has to go with the brand,” added Patel who is also trying to solve that problem through one more product where restaurants can choose the content according to their need and post it on social platforms and across media to market them well.

Gone are the days when brands used to rely on humans. It’s the era of digitization, automation. From robots serving your favourite food at the restaurant to technologies managing operations and order management, the whole ecosystem of food business has changed. Also, many a times people think that automation means removing of humans but it is about working in tandem with the humans. Nobody ever think that what would be the cost per order at the scale and that’s where brands are struggling. For eg; IT managers at restaurants were always focusing on what they need in terms of what is the requirement at the restaurant but they never focused on what’s required. Hence, we can say that customization is easy to build, difficult to maintain. And, that’s where automation enters.

Though, the pandemic has been a watershed moment for the restaurant at foodservice sector at large, digital adoption is the need of the hour as consumers these days are looking for digital touch-points, contactless dining/ ordering and delivery as major innovation. Given the current industry outlook and the evolution, large scale technology adoption is imperative to increase the efficiency of operations, control pilferage, manage online channels and keep costs under control.

Technology is omnipresent. It has left its footprints in almost all spheres of global industry. The F&B industry is no different. It has incorporated technology to drive through all the roadblocks created by Covid-19.

Technology is like a wand that has done magic for the F&B industry. It has saved so many small restaurants from shutting down amid the pandemic. It helped restaurant owners enhance the convenience of customers while combating the Covid protocols.

Tech is revolutionizing food and beverage as the COVID-19 crisis accelerates the pace of robotics and AI. Computers help manage supply chains and reduce waste, and help restaurants to control costs, order inventory, and stock shelves. It has elevated the efficiency of restaurants to many folds. Let’s talk about technology-driven new terms that have changed how the F&B industry has been working for years. They have changed the face of the industry for good. Let’s dive and explore these terms.

RFID: Radio frequency identification (RFID) has become the dominant force with the technology finally approaching mass adoption after years of threatening to. The technology involves tags or “labels” that emit a small radio frequency, allowing radio stock counts that are both highly accurate and incredibly fast compared to traditional methods. The result of this is a very up to date, or even real-time, view of the stock. The main use cases responsible for the technology’s success include the increased process efficiency, superior inventory management and the enablement of seamless omnichannel services.

RFID ensures:

● Optimum inventory management

● Reduced food waste

● Transparency in the supply chain

Cloud kitchen: Cloud kitchen is a delivery-only restaurant that has no physical space for dine-in. It relies entirely on online orders placed through online food aggregators or an online ordering-enabled website or mobile app. It has enabled restaurants to offer their customers delicious meals without worrying about the budget as these kitchens don’t require infrastructure and sitting furniture. The food will be prepared in the kitchen and will be delivered at customers' doorsteps or they can opt for the ‘take-away’ option.

Robotics: Rising coupled with skyrocketing rents and huge issues with more tedious, repetitive restaurant tasks and eliminating the labor crisis will help curb the spread of the deadly virus. Robotics usage also extends beyond just in-house operations for food companies. Ghost and virtual kitchen companies are also leaning into using robots to deliver food to customers.

Artificial Intelligence: Restaurants are now turning to artificial intelligence and machine learning to help optimise their processes and manage their operations. AI has snuck into all aspects of the modern restaurant from sales, to delivery, to inventory management and more. The secret behind artificial intelligence is that it is constantly learning (hence ‘machine learning’). When you give the machine lots of data points, it can draw patterns and easily predict what may occur the next time something similar will happen. Because of that, restaurateurs can use AI to track food trends and see what consumers want right now. Consumer driven food & beverage companies are facing significantly reduced consumption as well as disrupted supply chains. At-home consumption has increased, but out-of-home consumption which historically generates the highest margin has come to nearly a standstill. There may be long-term changes in behaviour and demand. There has been an astronomical shift in the paradigm when it comes to the demand of customers. ‘Contactless’ is the new hashtag. It has become a necessity for consumers and this has been the reason behind the tremendous surge in popularity of contactless dining technology. Contactless technology is a by-product of all the advanced technologies that have emerged as a solace for the food industry post-Covid. It helped the industry in coping with the hustle and bustle created owing to the pandemic. This contactless technology serves numerous purposes and holds many benefits for the food and beverages industry, such as,

● Reduce cost

● Streamlined the ordering process

● Better allocations of labour resources

● Liberty to go cashless

● Enabled contactless seating

In the post-Covid era, people are still sceptical about stepping out, touching unsanitized stuff or currency notes. It won’t be wrong to say that we are living in the era of contactless technology. Technology which was once considered ‘good-to-have’ has now become ‘must-have'. Customers are aware of the fact that any mistake at this point of time can toss all the efforts in the air.

“The Indian food service delivery market is expected to more than double to $13 billion (Rs 93,600 crore) by fiscal 2023 from $5.2 billion (Rs 37,440 crore) in fiscal 2020,” shared a report by.

And, with more and more people staying at home and dining-in becoming the new dining-out, cloud-kitchen or the delivery business in India is estimated to grow five times bigger in next five years.

With no physical presence, less commercial involvement and working as an internet restaurant wherein you can get the food delivered at the comfort of your home, cloud-kitchen segment is projected to become a $2 billion industry in India by 2024, as per a report by RedSeer Management Consulting. Not only this, as per survey, 21% of the respondents said they were more likely to increase their online ordering of takeaway food after the lockdown, while just 9% said they were more likely to visit restaurants more often.

Looking at this opportunity, investors are pouring their money in the fastest growing segment during such a pandemic.

Ahmedabad-based cloud-kitchen startup Rolling Plates that offers ‘Ahmedabadi Biryani’, has raised USD 150K in its Pre-seed fund round from US-based investment firm EXL Investment LLC.

With this Pre-seed fund raise it is planning to expand in the tier two cities with its 'Delivery-Only' business model, focusing on west Indian market before venturing into the other territories.

“Being a food-tech startup our priority is to build a strong and sound technology that can enhance our online ordering experience and logistics capabilities. Going forward we would create a robust data analytics framework that can improve the way we work and the kind of food that we serve to our customers,” shared Shihab Sheikh, Co-founder, Rolling Plates.

In the next phase after strengthening the foothold in India, Rolling Plates plans to venture into The United States as its first global market. Rolling Plates is also in talks for a JV with a Tanzania based food delivery and logistics startup to expand in the African Market. Apart from its flagship brand 'Ahmedabadi Biryani' that offers authentic local taste of biryani, the startup also operates two other virtual restaurant brands - The Mughal Treat (A main course Indian, Mughlai & BBQ delivery brand) and Brunch'O' (Snacks & Breakfast delivery brand).

“The startup not only has the potential to grow in India and but also mark overseas due to the unique taste of ‘Ahmedabad Biryani’. It has high potential to grow in The United States, where there is a large chunk of Indian and Asian diaspora,” said Sadaf Mansuri Founder of EXL Investment LLC.

Founded in 2018, by husband-wife duo, Shihab Sheikh and Falaknaz Sheikh consciously chose to curate the authentic traditional ‘Ahmedabadi Biryani’ recipe with the sole purpose to propagate the unique taste of local sumptuous biryani found only within the walled city of Ahmedabad, still prepared by the Mughal era’s old-fashioned traditional cooks called ‘Bhatiyaras (cooks)’.

Similarly, Nino Foods earlier Francesco’s Pizzeria has raised $125,000 from Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator Y Combinator. Started by Nishant Jhaveri and Pranav Mehra a year ago by converting it to a delivery-only venture, today they also run a burger brand under Nino Burger.

The brand is also planning to launch their third brand in a few weeks.

As per Nino Foods that is focusing on the premium segment where average order value accounts for Rs 400 and above.

“We built our second brand, Nino burgers, to prove to ourselves that we could create a food brand that people love. We used data for some decisions and went with our gut on others. Being outsiders to the food industry but lifelong food lovers, we were able to take a more customer-centric approach. We experiment often, iterate quickly, and want to build a category-defining company with global impact," said Nishant Jhaveri, Co-Founder, Nino Foods.

They are also aiming to enter three cities by next year.

Also, as we have seen home dining trend rising with more and more people eating at home. End to end kitchen aide ChefKart that plans, shops and cooks for you in your home kitchen by providing trained and verified home cooks who create perfectly hygienic meals suited best to your taste, at the comfort of your palms.

The Gurgaon-based startup has bagged $300,000 in Pre-Seed Funding from Titan Capital, Pravega Ventures, Lead Angels and others.

ChefKart has served over 500 customers even during COVID times and managed to grow 50 per cent m-o-m. Since its inception, the brand has on-boarded 2200 service professionals covering almost the entire Gurugram.

“People see COVID as an opportunity loss but it has proved to be a blessing in disguise for us as people have realized the importance of home-cooked food. I believe we have the right set of investors who betted on the right set of people to solve the daily problem of managing a kitchen," said Vaibhav Gupta, CEO and Co-founder, ChefKart.

It is planning to use the funds to develop a product that can help users manage end-to-end kitchen needs, upskilling and training of cooks to make them more professionals, acquiring more customers and chefs on the platform, and scaling up the business in Noida.

These days it’s very common when more and more numbers of consumers are happy to ask Alexa, Siri or the Google Assistant to play a song, find a recipe or dim the lights in their smart homes. But only a narrow subset of voice assistant enthusiasts would comfortably instruct these tools to make purchases for them – at least before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Also Read: McDonald’s looks at technology to deliver better customer experience in 2021

Experimenting with voice-bots

Several restaurants are acknowledging the role that voice technology will play in the coming years and are working to make it more seamless for customers. Especially QSR brands like Domino’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s and Wingstop to name a few. Many of these players have enabled their customers to use in-app voice-activated ordering, while others have integrated with major virtual assistants — such as Cortana, Alexa or Google Assistant — to accomplish that task.

It all began in 2014 when Domino’s launched voice ordering via its mobile app and, in 2016, the pizza company added “Dom the Pizza Bot,” enabling orders directly through Facebook messenger.  This trend was soon picked up by brands like Wingstop and Chipotle experimenting with a similar kind of technology by 2016-2017 and by now almost all top QSR brands are betting big on voice based orders.

“At Pizza Hut we are always keen to experiment with innovative marketing formats that resonate with our millennial-minded audience. When Gaana suggested doing Voice Activated Ads, where users ask for the offer themselves, it seemed like a perfect fit and I am thrilled that our voice-activated campaign has been a hit with the target audience,” shared Neha, Chief Marketing Officer, Pizza Hut India.

As per a report by Edelweiss Securities, India’s QSR market is expected to clock a compound annual growth rate of 23% between now to fiscal year 2025. The food services market was estimated at ₹4,236 billion in FY20, Edelweiss said in its research note citing data from Technopak.

“We believe it is the same as how people slowly adopted digital technology for payments - once people try it out, they usually don’t go back to the old ways. Similarly, once people try out digital dining, they don’t go back to the conventional ways for the simple reason that digital dining is more convenient, safer, quicker, and better managed,” pointed Anil Kumar, CTO, ToneTag by adding that people get their menus and waiter services just like before but now it's all digital and fits in their palms. They don’t have to wave frantically to catch the waiter’s attention; instead, they can place their order through the digital waiter, who is always present at their table.

Driven by convenience

Also, if we look at global data, according to Voicebot.ai, 64% of adults are interested in using voice AI to order food, and more than one-quarter of all US consumers who own voice-activated devices have used them to place food orders. Being quicker and convenient and most importantly - allows people to dine with minimal contact.

Recently, QSR chain McDonald’s started trials to work with automated voice-ordering technology at drive-thrus across its ten restaurants in Chicago, US.

“The new technology was able to take orders correctly 85% of the time and also has the potential to take 80% of the customer orders,” said Chris Kempczinski, CEO, McDonald’s while speaking at a conference.

He was also of the opinion that there were still some orders that required human involvement to gather information from customers. McDonald’s is trying to adopt automated ordering system before the pandemic, ever since it acquired Apprente in 2019 that is engaged in the development of AI-powered voice platforms.

May Interest: “Everything from analog has gone digital in restaurant biz”

Similarly, ToneTag that has partnered with brands like KFC, Domino’s and Pizza Hut to name a few mentioned, “It is a software-only stack that can be easily integrated with any restaurant’s existing infrastructure with no major investment. The pricing depends on the scale of operation of the restaurants. The beauty is any big or small restaurants can enable this tech, the size does not matter.”

And, as we see technology is supposed to level the field for everyone and brands are batting for this inclusion through integrated solutions, digital dining will be the new norm at restaurants across the country. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has paced the food sectors transformation by leaps and bounds. The closing of international borders, shortage of supplies, and lockdown of out-of-home channel are posing immediate challenges to the highly globalised food sector and thus to our food supply itself. Technology has changed how different industries in India function. Today, technology in the food industry is the most pursued new age development! Thanks to the boom of foodtech, at the click of a mouse or a tap on our screens, we can have delicious meals and scrumptious desserts right at our doorstep.

Health is top priority

Moreover, with the onset of the pandemic, people have become more health conscious than ever before. There is more demand for healthy and nutrient products: the healthcare concern is listed on the top of customers’ desires. According to statistics, post pandemic, consumers preferred healthier alternatives when consuming foods. (For e.g. Organic, plant based, vegan, etc.). Healthy and sustainable food has also made its way to many new age restaurants menus. Consumers are now paying attention to labels and harmful ingredients, especially with the advent of social media, all companies must be mindful of what they are claiming. Brands are also investing in technology to help them “go green.” For e.g. some companies are using robotics and digitalization to find alternatives to plastics and other harmful packaging to the environment. A recent ING report proves that consumers expect to see healthier food on the store shelves in the future. 43% of respondents are looking for healthy options, while 18% are interested in eco-friendly products.

Opening door to new tech

The Indian food industry has opened its doorway to new technologies and mobile application based services which have led to an enormous transformation in how the Indian food sector operates.Food providers (especially restaurants) are currently transforming into digitalization and automation in terms of increasing efficiency and reach, and replacing manual tasks. In recent years, agtech innovators have managed to create exciting new ways to harness the power of technology to enhance the world’s food supply. What do these agtech start-ups really do? These ag-tech innovators are trying to protect crops while maximizing outputs. This in turn enables a structural change in the agriculture system which could help India achieve important sustainability goals.

Due to the advent of tech and startups, consumers have also become more time conscious. This has made simple tech like tracking is imperative at every step, right from- when a customer orders to the time the restaurant starts its preparation to finally finding the right driver to deliver it. Also, they demand high quality and are now interested in customizing their food experiences in real life – all of which is again made possible via mobile technologies.

Investing in the right technology also enables smoother operations like online payments using advanced cloud based POS systems, online ordering, online reservations and automated inventory management systems for better visibility of business data and to make data enforced decisions.With customer ordering habits becoming more digital there’s an increased investment in FoodTech companies that aredriving more orders by providing tech based convenience to their customers.

The faster the time flies, the more choices your customers get: the market is overloaded with products and services. That is why many brands are working hard to transform products into something bigger – products become services, and services are turned into experiences. Food industry technology innovations allow business owners to understand customers better and provide them with a little bit more than they expect.All in all, the quarantine and the lockdown period have hit fast forward on wider adoption of digital in the food sector. The pandemic and ensuing lockdown has made people focus more on communities and local food ecosystems. We are seeing tech platforms helping local producers connect with more customers and providing innovative solutions to support their neighborhood restaurants (and all this at a time when they need their communities more than ever, and their communities need them.

About the Author: Rohit Gawli, CEO and Co-Founder, Lokal Kitchen, a food-tech company focused on marketing, selling, and delivering home-cooked meals to households and offices

The food tech industry is nascent but one of the fastest growing in India today. It has given a new dimension to the customers who are more than happy to experiment with these technologies. Similarly, we have seen that food-tech players have got the nerves of the customers and hence they know how to focus on right marketing by introducing new ways to attract customers and guests. According to a report by BCG-Google on digital trends among consumers, the reach of food tech aggregators has grown six times from 2017 to 2019. At the same time, we see consumers spend more than double the time to explore and order online, from 32 minutes per month in 2017 to 72 minutes per month in 2019. Riding on the wave of higher consumption in a growing market and maturing dynamics on the supply side, the report also mentioned that it expect the industry to grow from $4 Bn to $8 Bn in next three years, a massive 25% growth rate.

May Interest: Food Service Industry is Leading the Digital Payments adoption

New and innovative technologies like, adoption of AI, QR based ordering and payments, Voice technology are transforming the way we have been ordering and dining at a restaurant. And, so far Restaurant industry is not immune to it. Technological advancements are innovating every element of a typical restaurant operation, from how diners make reservations to how managers track inventory. Food apps are even playing bigger role in tech upgrade of restaurants. Here are top tech trend according to experts in the industry that will re-shape the customer experience and change the way restaurants operate in a post pandemic world:

Digitisation is the future: “A 100% digitised food ecosystem is the future. Today, it’s still in bits and pieces but with more tech players entering with innovative alternatives that are challenging the status quo, every aspect of the food industry is bound to get digitized,” shared Renjith Prahladan of Urban Piper that is Saas based platform helping restaurants in digital transformation.

Rise of single kitchen concepts: By just scanning a QR code, you can now place your order without even an attender/ server coming in to help you out in a fine dines setting. That’s transformation right there. Leveraging technology, a single kitchen is now able to power multiple brands, each serving a different cuisine and a different customer - what we call as a cloud kitchen. To sum it up, yes, within a few years, the food industry should get 100% digitised with the end customer also being hooked and driving the trend to set in.

Also Read: Yum! Brands to acquire kitchen order management and delivery technology platform Dragontail Systems

AI will change the sector: From top restaurants brands to independently owned cafes, restaurants are collecting personal data and are hungry for it. By using Artificial Intelligence (AI), restaurants can mine the data for food trends and consumer habits. They can extract information and use it to develop new products or change current items. “Apart from food safety, another important trend will be the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across the food industry. For instance, voice-command features for ordering food are expected to hit the scene soon. The power of AI can be used in multiple ways due to its intuitive nature and recommending customers as per their tastes and likes on various dishes while ordering,” pointed Ankur Sharma, CBO, Rebel Foods that has become the top cloud-kitchen in India.

Facial recognition and digital menus: Food tech is on the rise, there has been a huge push globally on adopting digital advancements at commercial kitchens, and India has many players that provide excellent solutions in the space. “Brands like Chaayos has taken this to the next level by bringing in facial recognition, digital menus, app-based orderings, and fresh food vending machines also claim their market share,” added Eshwar Vikas, CEO & Co-Founder, Mukunda Foods.  

Digital waiter is the new fad: The digital waiter is a voice and AI-driven solution that acts as a waiter and caters to the dining needs of a user. “The digital waiter is a compact hardware powered by ToneTag sound-based tech that is capable of intuitive interactions with the user. For example, when a person takes his/her seat at the table, the digital waiter automatically wakes up and greets the diner. It displays the menu on the diner’s mobile phone and subsequently accepts the order through voice-based commands. The Digital waiter then relays the order to the kitchen and keeps the diner company through smart interactions such as informing about order readiness etc. Once the diner is done with his/her meal, the digital waiter displays the digital bill, which the diner can pay via the in-App feature or using a voice signature. The whole dining journey with the digital waiter is completely personal, contactless, and digital,” said Anil Kumar, CTO, ToneTag by adding that the digital waiter only streamlines and digitizes a diner’s experience which in turn helps the staff manage the restaurant better and serve the diner without any hassle or long wait-time.

It all started from a hostel room where Sudeep Sabat, COO, Mukunda Foods and Eshwar K Vishwa, CEO, Mukunda Foods would dream of building a McDonald’s of Indian foods just like many aspiring entrepreneurs. That's when they started with their first venture, a QSR, and their customers would love their Dosas and Idlis. It was going all well till they scaled up and opened few outlets. “We could not match the food consistency across the outlets, which affected our customer base. This was our encounter with the market reality of F&B business that scaling is tough, but maintaining consistency and controlling operational costs are tougher,” shared Vishwas by adding that the incident made the engineers in them awakened, and that’s when they started working on a solution to it. “Finally, we came up with World's first fully automatic Dosa-making machine, and we decided to be a catalyst in the making of McDonald’s of Indian Foods,” he pointed proudly. Read more about his story:

Also Read: Yum! Brands to acquire kitchen order management and delivery technology platform Dragontail Systems

Overcoming the challenges faced

It starts with the basic question of the challenges faced by F&B business, then the research and development take around a year or a little more than that before we finally get these products in the market. For instance, be it a cloud kitchen & QSR, they struggle with perfect cooking of Rotis, Parathas, Kulchas; therefore, there is a need for a solution that cooks these items more efficiently and quickly. Our latest product E-Pan bridges this gap, and it comes with an intelligent system for puffing, requiring minimum human intervention. In addition to this, With F&B businesses back-ending their flatbreads, Patties, and Parathas into frozen food, E-Pan helps them serve these frozen items that taste like freshly cooked food items. 

Driving the automation quotient

So far, Restaurants use to thrive on social gatherings, but pandemics changed how it works. As a result, we can see the shift from dine-in to delivery, and the customers seem to be happy with this change. However, the delivery model also comes with its own set of challenges like aggregators would hardly give you 10-15 mins for meal prep, which puts an additional load on your staff, and you might require hiring skilled staff. Maintaining food consistency also becomes another concern with a high dependency on human intervention. This is where Mukunda's automation solutions help them address these concerns and smoothen their operations.  

We have automated 14+ processes that can help restaurants maintain consistency, reduce dependency on skilled labor and gain operational efficiency. Here are our four most celebrated products: 

Wokie: A fully automated cooking station for Asian and Wok-based recipes.  

Eco-Fryer: Automatic fryer for perfect crispiness and frying that also helps save oil and energy. 

E-Pan: Makes wraps, Parathas, flatbreads effortlessly with its intelligent puffing system. 

Dosamatic: Easy to operate machine that pulls of the absolute crispiness and flavors of a dosa. 

Who are some of your clients? Are there any revenue-sharing fees or something? 

We have clients from a different set of F&B businesses like Cloud Kitchen, QSR, Hotels, Corporates, etc., and to name some of them, we have Rebel Foods, JFL, Chayoos, Swiggy, Ola Foods, and ITC. Our standard revenue model is pretty simple, where every product has a fixed cost attached that the clients pay while purchasing the machine. However, while launching our latest product, i.e., Combi-Oven, we got a common suggestion from the market of having a rental model. This product tops the list of essentials for commercial kitchens, but the upfront CAPEX investment becomes a concern for QSRs and small business owners. Therefore, we have come up with a rental model that works well for the clients. 

It is believed that with tech playing an important role, centralized data plays an important role in making business more automated. Why so? And, how are you helping with the same? 

The centralized data and IOT help automations work at their best of capabilities and give decision-makers a lot more control over their businesses. At Mukunda, our machines are IOT enabled, so clients will have full control over setting up the recipes based on their Sops, and they can also modify it from the central location whenever they want. They also get to see a daily report like which are the highest selling food item all the locations, which are preferred in specific locations and these kinds of insights help them make decisions. To put it in simple words, the client will have control over wherever the machines are installed.

This helps them achieve consistency, and their staff can also multitask as the machines follow the sops anyway.

How have you made machines automated for cuisines? How much time did it take in research and development? 

Our domestic kitchens have different cookware set for different kinds of cuisines as it largely impacts the final food. The same logic goes with commercial kitchens; most of the time, challenges faced by them are cuisine-specific. For example, tossing Chinese food might not sound like a tedious job, but it requires skilled labor, and the attrition rate is too high in the F&B services business. Wokie from Mukunda is a solution to these challenges, and it can cook any toss-based recipes as per the standard Sops. Similarly, Eco-Fryers solves the problem of under and over-frying fried items. Ideally, the research and development take around a year, including market validation and product trial at actual commercial kitchens.  

May Interest: Limited Menu, process automation that's how India's top restaurants planning to operate

Going with the trend

India took a comparatively little longer to adapt, whereas countries like Australia, Canada, and United States were more open. However, Indian Restaurants became more receptive to technological advancements in a post-Covid situation since there was a concern of skilled staff and labor because of the migration. In addition to this, hygiene and safety became a priority, and Kitchen automation solutions could easily bridge these gaps.  To put it in context, Mukunda signed up three times of customers compared to FY 2018-2019. So, I would say kitchen automation emerged as a stronger player during the Pandemic in India and is expected to get stronger in the coming times. 

What's your global presence? What's the expansion plan? 

So far, we have helped automate 2000+kitchens across 22 countries, but we haven't made conscious efforts to penetrate the international market. There is a fairly decent demand for automated kitchen equipment for Asian Foods in Australia, Canada, United States, and the UK. There is also a demand for solutions that are more functionally and operationally efficient than aesthetically. So, with nine amazing products in our kitty, our focus will be to penetrate these markets as we are finalizing some global distribution partners.  

“For any restaurant, technology has become a necessity and not a good-to-have because the end consumer is expecting top notch service especially in the online space,” shared Renjith Prahladan of UrbanPiper that is doing nearly 7 million transactions in digital space every month. And, with more and more restaurants adopting delivery and entering into the dark-kitchen space, automation plays an important role. That’s where brands like UrbanPiper come in, helping restaurants in digital transformation. With their offering restaurants can manage/automate their online presence be it on their own websites/apps or any of the leading food delivery platforms — Zomato, Swiggy, UberEats, Deliveroo, Talabat etc. in the most simple manner.

Also Read: How Smart Food Technology can aid Restaurant Growth

At present, UrbanPiper is processing nearly 7 million transactions every month and live with 16000+ Storefronts across multiple countries including India, Middle-East & Latam markets. They work with some of the marquee brands like Pizza Hut, McD, Subway, KFC, Dunkin Donuts, Krispy Kreme and a lot more. Excerpts from the interview:

We see that with more and more restaurants adopting delivery, automation plays an important role. How does Urban Piper help in bridging that gap?

Yes, the food industry has really evolved tremendously across the last decade with technology playing an important role in transforming the way the world consumes food. Restaurants have also gone through a journey of adaptation to stay relevant.

Today, if a restaurant needs to be successful from both a topline and bottomline perspective, it is critical for them to automate a lot of their internal processes to optimise their operations. With the advent of online ordering whose share of revenue has also increased, customer experience is dependent on a lot more aspects that is beyond just the food taste and quality and leveraging technology and automation is a no brainer for restaurants to become more efficient.

How does Urban Piper help?

●      Eliminates the need of multiple tabs

●      Eliminates the need for manual punching in of orders from multiple aggregators

●      Helps in better reconciliation of orders, helping restaurants look at data and optimise

●      Helps in streamlined catalogue management

This single solution solves for several gaps that restaurants face while delivering orders for instance:

●      Better catalogue management helps in reducing stock outs, improving the menu in-app that helps reduce drop offs of customers visiting the storefront online

●      The presence of a centralised dashboard for all aggregators help in reducing cancellations which directly translates into incremental revenue for the restaurant

●      Efficient back end operations is facilitated that will help the restaurants positively influence their P&L

As shared earlier, there are a gamut of products that we offer to restaurants. Listed below are the major ones:

●      Hub: Our product that powers integrations with food aggregators (Zomato, Swiggy, Amazon Foods, UberEats, MagicPin, Dunzo, Dotpe, EazyDiner & DineOut)

●      Meraki: Our whitelabel solution for brands to kick off their own mobile apps (Android & iOS) and websites for delivery

●      Prime: Our in-house POS solution that is delivery friendly and has shown high receptiveness in the cloud kitchen space

Who are some of your clients? Are there any revenue sharing fees or something?

We are partners with most of the marquee brands like Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Subway, Baskin Robbins, Wow Momo, Eat.fit, Paradise Biryani, Cafe Coffee Day, Jubilant Group, Haldirams, A2B, MOD, Chai Point, Bikanervala to name a few.

We also count most of the prominent Cloud Kitchen brands such as Kitchens@, Fast Kitchen, Kitchens Centre, Maverix, Oye Kiddan, WarmOven, CakeZone, Kytchens and many more rely on our platform for managing all their online channels. We are exclusive partners for Swiggy Access all over India and provide end-to-end offerings to the restaurants participating in Swiggy Access.

We charge a small fixed fee on every successful order that’s processed on our platform.

It is believed that with tech playing an important role, centralized data plays an important role in making business more automated. Why so? And, how are you helping with the same?

Restaurants today are partnering with multiple tech players to solve the variety of problems they are facing in the online space, which calls for an organic need for centralised reading of data, else it is super easy for a restaurant to get lost.

UrbanPiper is solving this problem at scale. We’re integrated with multiple tech players who are offering solutions to varied problem statements and hence partnering with us is opening up a way for restaurants to access data of all their tech partners in a single view that helps them become more efficient in decision making, backed by reading and assimilating well organised data points.

You have expanded your wings to UAE, UK and Egypt. What’s your expansion plan?

Yes, as a SaaS brand, we have always carried a global approach towards solution. Our products are relevant across the globe because the problems are pretty much similar. There definitely are customisations that’s required as we expand to new markets, but the crux of the soul remains intact. We are seeing strong receptiveness to our products in GCC and we are pretty bullish on expanding quickly and gaining a first mover advantage wherever possible. We are piloting multiple markets as we speak and the initial traction is pretty encouraging.

We have plans to expand in SEA, LATAM & APAC Markets.

What’s your view when we compare restaurants in India adopting technology in comparison to the global world?

For any restaurant, technology has become a necessity and not a good-to-have because the end consumer is expecting top notch service especially in the online space. The barrier to exit for a consumer has largely reduced over time with aggregators solving for discoverability at scale. Consumers are spoilt for choice.

In India, the story isn’t different and we believe the industry is forcing restaurants to quickly adapt. Small and Medium restaurants are also adopting marketing automation to communicate with their customers, which is a great sign. A well established century old brand that has a legacy but not tech savvy has a higher chance to fail in the online space when compared to a new brand that is tech savvy and serves their customers with automated and optimised operations.

Overall - India is as exciting and receptive to technology as across the globe and that’s the opportunity we’re gunning for!

May Interest: McDonald’s looks at technology to deliver better customer experience in 2021

What according to you would be the biggest technology trend in the restaurant space?

A 100% digitised food ecosystem is the future. Today, it’s still in bits and pieces but with more tech players entering with innovative alternatives that are challenging the status quo, every aspect of the food industry is bound to get digitised. By just scanning a QR code, you can now place your order without even an attender coming in to help you out in a fine dine setting. That’s transformation right there. Leveraging technology, a single kitchen is now able to power multiple brands, each serving a different cuisine and a different customer - what we call as a cloud kitchen. To sum it up, yes, within a few years, the food industry should get 100% digitised with the end customer also being hooked and driving the trend to set in.

While running a physical restaurant has become difficult today, the concept of delivery only kitchen is emerging in India. Not only is it cost effective but also yields good returns. However, the model here is still in a nascent stage and with time it is expected to spread across the country. Various investors have different theories about this concept and they are eyeing for successful dark kitchen models to invest their funds. 

Recently at a latest Restaurant Congress event in Bangalore on Dark Kitchens, Investors like Shanti Mohan, Founder and CEO at LetsVenture, Sam Subramaniam, CEO at Brand Capital and Aditya Somani, Private Equity Investment Professional and Advisor to FreshMenu talked about the opportunities that lie in the cloud kitchen model, what do they look for in this model to invest and why they think that this model has a lot of space to grow in the country.

Shanti, who runs a marketplace, where it connects startups to investors says, “There is a huge opportunity in the cloud kitchen model because it allows a lot of aggregation and local food. I think at the end of the day, food is still local. So, you might want to talk about scale of it, but I think the combination of scale and it being local, will still continue to be a challenge.”

“I think this model is a combination of asset light versus somebody managing the infrastructure. I believe this is still in a nascent stage. It is just the beginning but it is in an evolving stage. I think this is a huge opportunity for people who don’t want to do a lot of customer front ending,” she further explains.

Meanwhile, Sam who also runs a restaurant in New York echoes the same sentiment as Shanti. He says “Overall what I am seeing is that the scale of each brand within a dark kitchen is not enormous. In future I will see massive dark kitchens having 20-30 brands within them like for example, Procter and Gamble or Unilever, where they have a portfolio of brands.”

He also talked about dark kitchens which are being operated in the US and Europe and how the businesses operated there are different from here. “In the US it started first in the bigger cities like NY, San Francisco and so forth.  It is driven slightly by different set of inputs. Restaurants became untenable there, I think over 7-8000 restaurants have shut down in the city of NY in the last 3-4 years. So, eating in restaurants is becoming expensive and operating it became more expensive.  Here in India also it is not like running a restaurant is more affordable. However, people’s time is getting compressed. So, now dark kitchens have come up.”

“What I have seen is at the end of the day people want to eat and the question is how you meet that demand and how do you meet in a dynamic and flexible way. I think the very first thing is specializing in unique cuisines and then is how you scale it. Lastly how do you make it affordable and how are you going to deliver matters. It’s not about being a fancy chef, it’s about productizing it and scaling it, which is ruthlessly hard,” Sam says.

Although first coined in 1956, it is only in recent times that Artificial Intelligence (AI), has become one of the most sought after technologies. Poised to become a billion-dollar industry by 2025, its possibilities are endless for individuals, businesses, and technologists. Furthermore, it is speculated that three quarters of all apps will be using AI by the end of 2021. Taking stock of this, sectors from finance to e-commerce and even retail, have actively begun adopting the technology, to leverage the power of machine and data.

In a similar manner, the food and beverage (F&B) industry, has embraced AI with open arms, to meet the high labour and service standards expected of it. Through AI, the industry is also looking at enhanced supply chain management, marketing, research and development operations, in a bid to take the sector to the next level.

The use of AI in the F&B sector also comes on the back of growing consumer demands, to keep up with the fast pace. As enterprises across the spectrum are continually challenged by the changing global trends, AI plays a key role in ensuring compliances are met, and standards related to food and safety processes are adhered to. Additionally, AI in the F&B sector is also widely used across manufacturing lines, to guide equipment, thereby increasing productivity, and minimising wastage, two key challenges, which the sector has faced.

Supply chain management too, a delicate process in the F&B sector, has seen a marked improvement with the introduction of AI. Preventing foodborne diseases is one of the top most priorities for any F&B player, and is a major part of the handling and supply chain management process. Here’s where AI has stepped in. From temperature control to handling foods which have a limited shelf-life, the industry has definitely used this to their advantage. One way in which is being done, is by studying the genetic code of food micro biomes. What this then does is creates tools that can detect anomalies that are possible food safety hazards, to alert the company, and mitigate a possible disaster. Moreover, through the use of AI, these operations, which are largely cost oriented such as inventory, and maintaining quality of food can be streamlined to minimise losses.

With this, and more, it is clear that the future of the F&B industry lies in AI, for increased efficiency. Technology has, in fact, already created waves across the sector. Takeaways, cloud kitchen services and more, are fast gaining popularity among users for their ease of operations, as well as the multitude of options available at the click of a button. This has also started to catch up with the travel food industry that makes use of data and algorithms to better understand customers and their preferences. And if the current rate at which AI is penetrating the market is anything to go by, it won’t be long before we can see a time when it will forecast what a customer will be ordering in the future, as well as predict sales trends.

It is no wonder then, that is rightly said that innovation is the backbone of development, and this holds true not just for the F&B sector, but for the economy at large, that will benefit from the use of technology. Coupled with increasing globalisation of ideas, and increased expectations from customers, AI has now become a necessity among brands to think outside the box, and rope in innovative methods that will propel their growth in the years to come.

Food and beverages industry has adopted technology like never before in last 2-3 years. We have seen technology at every pace of the restaurant and food service operations. From ordering food online to adopting AI and other technology for smooth operations at restaurant, food service industry has created a global record in adopting technological advancements.

According to a latest report by Appannie, “there was dramatic growth in sessions of Food and Drink apps across the board — France led the pack at 325% growth from 2016 to 2018, followed by Australia at 300% and South Korea at 230%.”

The report also mentioned that India saw an explosion of session’s growth in Food and Drink apps in 2018, up 120% from 2016. This is fueled by growth in both fast food apps (QSR — Quick Service Restaurants) and the rise of food delivery services. Mobile bridges the physical and digital and has enabled the brick-and-mortar food and drinks industry to build a strong — and growing — presence in an ever more digital world.

Zomato is Winning the Delivery Game

Globally, downloads of the top 5 food delivery apps have grown 115% in 2018 vs. 2016. UberEATS and Zomato, respectively, were the top two food delivery apps by worldwide downloads in 2018. Of the markets analyzed, India saw the strongest growth at 900%.

The report titled The State of Mobile 2019 also mentioned that this is led by growth in fast food apps (Quick Service Restaurants) and the rise of food delivery services globally.

Zomato in its annual report has mentioned earlier this year that it has 70 million monthly active users on its platform and 11 million app downloads across Android and iOS per month

But food delivery apps were also in high demand for western markets like Canada and the US, up 255% and 175% respectively.

Starbucks, one of the global leader in coffee business has established a delivery program in China and has announced plans to bring this to the US in 2019. In partnership with UberEATS, Starbucks will use delivery to improve convenience, increasing throughput in areas without a drive-through location. In this example, mobile provides the conduit for more streamlined mornings and removes friction for a daily routine — a powerful example of mobile’s transformation of our daily rituals.

With current ruckus that is going between the restaurant owners and the food-tech company over freebies, discounts and low profit margins by restaurants because of these freebies. The restaurant owners signed a petition requesting the Govt to investigate the issue by citing that these organizations seem to harm the PM’s motive of making India a startup nation. Swiggy and Zomato reportedly denied the accusations.

Also Read: 6 Reasons Restaurant Owners are Annoyed of Food-tech Players

Reverting to the petition signed, a spokesperson at Zomato said, "At Zomato, we believe in providing the best services and experiences to our users; and endeavour to meaningfully help grow the businesses of our partners as well. Our platform lists more than 75,000 restaurants, of which a significant majority is small and mid-size restaurants. We have significantly expanded our online ordering and food delivery services and are currently present across 118 cities in India.”

He also added that the brand has been able to deliver long-term growth for our restaurant partners by connecting them with more users. Infact, a lot of our restaurant partners have been able to expand their operations since food delivery has helped them exponentially leverage the fixed and man-power costs. Discounts are merely a mechanism to encourage user participation and all our restaurant partners can choose to participate in a discounting campaign.

Commenting on the same Spokesperson at Swiggy added, ““Our fair practices have been widely acknowledged by the restaurant community and as a result, in the last 12 months alone, not only have we doubled the number of restaurant partners on the platform to over 55K, but more importantly our partners have seen a two-fold increase in Swiggy’s contribution to their business.”

On the matter of cross holding, Zomato said, "With HyperPure, our aim is to provide organic and residue free fresh produce to all the restaurants at their doorsteps while helping them save on the purchasing cost. The service is only present in Bangalore currently and already has a quality breadth of restaurants. HyperPure has received a great reception so much so that our order list is bigger than what we can currently service. It is helping restaurants save efforts of sourcing food ingredients from an otherwise unorganised market. A small to mid-size restaurant stands to save 10-15% in their monthly expenses on ingredients purchase. We don’t constrain the restaurants on our platform to associate with HyperPure, doing so will be completely against our ethics. Restaurants can choose the HyperPure services if they find them beneficial enough. 

"Zomato’s prime objective is to contribute to the growth of the restaurant industry in the country, which we have been doing over the last decade with the help of our various services. We are discussing the matter with the involved restaurant partners to achieve an amicable solution, which would benefit all the parties in the ecosystem.”

The discontent of restaurants against food-tech startups first came into the scene in December 2018, when the Group for Restaurateurs’ Empowerment, Advancement, and Togetherness (GREAT), an independent group comprising restaurateurs across Bengaluru, wrote an open letter highlighting their plight. The association had complained against deep discounting and the private label push on these platforms.

The group had also called for meetings and encouraged customers to order via a call or through the restaurant website. In the last few weeks, several restaurants have been observed as being “closed for online ordering” on platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy.

Also, Hotel & Restaurant Association of Gujarat wrote a letter to the Zomato Regional Head, asking restructuring of the online ordering commissions, discounts, payment and cancellation policies. The letter read, “At the onset we would like to thank you for providing decent business to the city of Ahmedabad. However, off late it is becoming difficult for the restaurants to make any profit from business provided by your company.”

The Organization has also invited all the stakeholders and representatives of these food tech players for a meeting on 10^th January.  Also, NRAI will also be holding a meeting with these players in its headquarter this week.

In the last few months we have seen food-tech companies alluring customers with freebies and offers that are not even valid at many restaurants creating a ruckus in the industry. Restaurateurs felt that these food-tech companies are not only enticing customers by these deals but are also trying to wipe out small medium enterprises. But, as they say – all that shines is not glitter. Soon, the sector became overflowed with ‘me-too’ startups lacking both – differentiation and innovation. Here are 5 Key Reasons Restaurant owners are annoyed of food-tech players including the likes of Swiggy, Zomato and UberEats.

Unviable Discounts: This has become a new norm by these food-tech players to lure customers. They have been offering temporary discounts below the cost price to customers. This is not only creating a hindrance in the business of top restaurants but is also making small restaurants face losses and many even faces the shut down.  “Unlike retail, FDI (foreign direct investment) restrictions are not applied on the restaurant sector or food service aggregators. As an association, we have a roundtable discussion next week with all four major food delivery aggregators to address deep discounting and the cloud kitchen issue, which is adversely affecting the restaurant industry,” shared Rahul Singh, President, National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), which represents over 5,000 brands last week.

Creating in-house Kitchen: Players like Swiggy have started their own kitchen- The Bowl Company wherein they direct customers to order from their in-house kitchen. This is not only misuse of customer data but also for restaurants that pay hugely to get listed on such platforms.

Focusing on Self Promotion: No matter the restaurant owners are paying huge tariffs players like Swiggy is promoting their own kitchens rather than restaurant partners. Whenever, a customer login into the Swiggy website they will see the in-house advertisement first. This clearly is misusing customer database who visit such platforms to order food to their own kitchen. 

In-house Suppliers: Players like Zomato has started in house company called Hyperpure. This company sells vegetables, chicken and other meat and forces restaurant listed on Zomato to raw materials from this company.

Hampering Margins: With such discounts available restaurants are facing low margins making loss of business and failing to achieve profit out of any food-tech companies.

 Offering Freebies and Discounts: A few years ago, the biggest problem was “discovery” of restaurants. People faced problem in figuring out restaurants that were available nearby and how good they were? Companies like Zomato absorbed this pain by building a simple platform to address the problem of the Indian foodies. But as we witnessed more and more startups doing the same, we see these players offering freebies and discounts to attract customers to use their platform.

According to sources, restaurant owners in India have filed a petition asking Govt to help curb an unsustainable pricing by these tech-players, ban cross holding and appointing a food regulator food in each state by the food and civil supplies ministry to ensure that the rule is not breached to overcome cut throat competitions.

In a largely mixed environment of growth in retail markets across the world, India continues to be a bright spot. Over the last two years, the food service sector has seen an exponential growth reaching double digits. According to a recent report by FICCI-PwC, India’s food service is projected to grow at more than 10% over the next five years (2018–23).

Seeing all the opportunities and growth that the sector is offering, food-tech space has seen a new boom in the last few years. Technology is disrupting the market with the advent of web-based ordering and use of AI and IoT in ordering revolutionising home delivery with faster availability of food at ease.

“The food service industry also vouches for the higher demands in Tier II and Tier III cities. The rise in the number of transactions via mobile platforms has prompted retailers and e-com players to focus their growth efforts beyond the metros in India,” said Anurag Mathur, Leader, Retail and Consumer, PwC India.

What is Driving This Change

Not only this, the entry of new age food tech players has led to a massive transformation of how restaurant industry operated in last few years. “Growing disposable income and busy lifestyles of the young and working population, coupled with increasing internet penetration and rising smartphone users, will continue to drive India’s food tech market through 2021,” added the report.

With more than 900 food delivery start-ups in the country, the food tech space saw an investment worth US$370 million in 2017–18, up from US$70 million in 2016–17, which is more than 400% growth.  Not only this major players like Swiggy, Zomato, FreshMenu, UberEats to name a few are constantly working to enhance the customer experience through their offers and discounts to lure more customers and add on the regular or loyal customers.

“India is a very different market as compare to globe. Scalability takes time in India and that’s where internet penetration comes in. For the first year we have seen people ordering food through Instagram,” shared Radhika Khandelwal, Owner, Fig & Maple.

Increase in Penetration of Smartphone

India has seen exponential growth in number of mobile phone users. Equally impressive has been the growth in internet access. Although mobile phones allow us to stay connected, it is the convergence of internet access and smartphones that has caused significant shifts in consumer awareness, outlook and behaviour. Also, people are now dependant on phones and internet for easy access to ordering food and finding the nearest restaurant and bar they want to spend and enjoy their time.

“Year on year technology has seen a new boom in restaurant’s growth. Restaurants have witnessed an increase in home delivery sales, branding focusing on an improved communication,” pointed, Pravesh Pandey of big Brewski that is planning to come up with a self integrated customer app to enhance the customer experience.

Thus, we can say that the emergence and success of food delivery and ordering platform is a matter of convenience, reliability and easy access. From providing backend support, to enabling easy ordering and payment, technology has set a new dimension for the growth of restaurants in India.

The foodtech market in India is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 12% during 2016 -2021. With increasing private equity and venture capital funding, the foodtech companies are focusing towards expanding their business in Tier II & III cities across India. With growing competition, online food ordering companies are focusing on providing faster delivery in major metro cities to increase their customer base.

Spearheading the technology and digital thrust of the Restaurant sphere at the Indian Restaurant Congress, Anand Thakur, Chief Digital Officer, Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd shares the technological dominance that has changed the delivery and dining experience altogether.

The Win Win Situation

With technology overpowering the Restaurant Business, there have been partnerships created that benefiting both the diners and the partners. When asked about the same, Anand said,” Technology is big and it has been coming off age for the past years.”

As far as food tech is concerned, Anand continued,” This is the era where things will change with concepts like social media, digital marketing and democratising delivery in the Restaurant space with technology touching all the multiple aspects of the Restaurant Business like customer acquisition, delivery and dining.”

“It is important to have a strategy in place to ensure that you are on that bandwagon and do not miss out on this wave of technology”, added Anand. 

Think Big: Delivery or Dining?

The dining experience changed with technology capturing the restaurant space. Few months ago, technology for restaurants was perceived to be something where you order and the food gets delivered at your doorstep.

Anand opines,” Without any doubt, dining makes the restaurant business more feasible. It is important that the Restaurant Business in general, cracks the right balance between dining and takeaway.”

Still Lagging Behind

It is no more an unknown fact that the concept of 30 min delivery as promised by Dominos is not that fulfilling anymore. When asked about the same, Anand said,” Apart from the product itself, delivery is our forte. There has been a huge and tremendous growth in the recent past and with technology growing faster, there have been certain issues where Dominos as a brand has not been able to fulfill the 30 minutre delivery promise. Given all the delivery businesses in the country, we are still the fastest and the best. Our intent for the future is to make sure that the phrase of 30 min quick delivery is fulfilled.”

Multiple aspects of food business which starts from customer acquisition, to the experience within the restaurant that includes not just the lighting or ambience but also food and with technology in hand, it is facilitating the whole experience.

Food For Thought

Indian Restaurant Congress 2018 brings together the biggest minds of the industry, sharing plethora of knowledge and ideas with each other.

“I am here to share my understanding of food and tech put together. Gaining knowledge from top players in the business of how they see technology and delivery with measures taken to fulfill the much awaited gap in the market”, said Anand, CDO, JubilantFoodworks Ltd.

Technology in the restaurant industry is the new normal. More than 81 percent of the restaurants now use a point-of-sale (POS) or electronic register system, according to a study conducted by the National Restaurant Association. Card processing, labor management, inventory management and accounting tools are featured by these systems. According to restaurant operators technology improves productivity, increases sales and provides a competitive edge.

Consumers have embraced restaurant technology and they believe delicious food and high-quality service still define a good restaurant experience which comes with technological advancements. Almost 80 percent of guests say restaurant tech improves their experience especially when it makes service faster, according to a recent study focusing on diners and technology conducted by a restaurant technology company.

“The recent technological trends in the F&B business can be classified into 4 categories Technology innovation- with use of automation and AI to achieve product consistency and speed
Product Innovation- with use of newer Ingredients to excite the customers.
Operational innovation- with use of well calibrated systems and policy to maintain consistency and effeciency. Marketing innovation- the age of making a brand popular and successful. This new age of digital marketing is a wonderful platform for our chefs to talk and communicate directly to our customers, thereby getting better insight on the customer demands and working for the rite customer targets,” shares Manu Nair, the Corporate Executive Chef for Billionsmiles Hospitality Pvt Ltd that owns restaurants like Bonsouth, Southindies, Upsouth, and Billionsmiles Catering.

Reducing food waste and increasing revenue

With the availability of predictive order management software, restaurants can predict demand, reduce waste and improve profits. The task has become more efficient with automation and the spreadsheets and inaccuracies are no more the hallmark of manual processes.
There is a system that promises to help deliver quick-service restaurant and cafe operators are able to order the right amount of product at the right time which helps in curbing wastage. “Technology has become integral to the food industry. Not only in the production side of things but also in the business of food and beverage. Trends to watch for are: Dinning in - this is a format that will surprise us all. And a lot of it is and will be technology enabled. The sheer luxury of ordering your favourite meal, via an app that remembers how you like your dish, throws in a discount and keeps sending you notifications. Mindfulness and customisation is again technology enabled where each individual customer is aware of what he or she wants to consume, be it basis a calorie count, ingredient specificness or nutritional value. The segment of such Buyers is increasing by the day and only technology can ensure that this amount of customisation is possible,” shares Tarun Sibal, cofounder at One Fine Meal and Cafe Staywoke .

Technology improves your guest data

Maintaining guest data helps the staff to quickly identify the regular customers and their unique preferences, which enables them to focus on keeping those customers satisfied and coming back for more. Easy access to accurate guest data makes it easier to tailor service to known preferences. You can make your regular consumers feel special by offering perks such as their preferred seating and proactively offering their most frequently purchased beverage or a favourite treat.

“Technology has helped me in many ways. For instance the availability of the ovens, the egg beaters, different kinds of cooking cutters has made cooking a lot easier and interesting. It helps in serving meal with beautiful presentation which is necessary especially for children. The biggest advantage of technology is that we save a lot of time which is a major benefit for working people. Also, equipments like air fryers have opened more options when it comes to healthy eating,” shares Amrita Raichand, famous chef and actress.

Today guests have the ability to view, split and pay their bills at the table using their smartphones which not only saves their time but also improves table productivity. Additional features can be on-the-spot satisfaction surveys, text messaging and more.

Technology has always been the driving force for innovation and creation among all the industries. Specially, within the past few years, technological innovations have been shaking up the food-business sector. Forward-thinking and fast paced restaurants are already aware of the immense impact technology has made on the food industry. It has made extreme differences for both restaurateurs and consumers.

An industry that is forecasted to reach $3 trillion by 2021 is heavily driven by technology and forward-thinking restaurants and businesses. “Technology, quality and efficiency go hand in hand. Technology helps to cook faster and produce larger. It enhances the work efficacy and is very important in the food industry right from the beginning making restaurant operations quick and convenient,” shares Vicky Ratnani, Culinary Consultant & Celebrity Chef Gourmet Gyan Hospitality.

Most restaurants have realised the importance of incorporating and utilizing technological advantages to leverage their position against their competitors. The food & beverage Industry is constantly changing and while there are many different aspects that could be analyzed, here are some major points that both Restaurants and Suppliers should pay attention to:

Technology-Driven Accountability: In the past, brands could get away with misleading customers by erroneous labels or clever copywriting, but in today's connected and aware world, it is almost impossible for companies to do so. With the advancement of Smartphone and social media, consumers have become more aware about the harmful effects of certain ingredients, the source of different products, and how things are made. This interconnectedness and consciousness is demanding accountability from the food giants like they have never seen before.

Research Is Changing The Market: Technology has enabled researchers to make new discoveries that are changing our perception on nutrition. Big data in particular has been able to reveal the consequences of certain foods that scientists did not previously understand. The FDA in recent years has been forced to issue updates on what is healthy and best for consumption. “Business technology helps to improve the communication process. It has positive effects on global business. Technology helps to improve products, create products, expand markets and profits shares,” Navneet Singh Rana, Co-owner of Binge Cafe and Donalds chain of cafe and bakery.

Reviews: Shared experiences and opinions over products on social media represent a major influence on today’s consumer’s purchases. The only downside is that sometimes it gets harder to meet expectations, not only as a Restaurant but also as a Supplier. In fact, with the decision making power now unquestionably inclined toward guests, both sides have to work incessantly to improve customers’ experiences and deliver a higher value to a never-satisfied clientele.

Awareness: Due to the massive amount of data and information available through the Internet, consumers are becoming more and more demanding and cautious. There is not only an increased focus on food sustainability, healthy eating and consumption of organic food, but also a remarkable shift in the ingredients being consumed by individuals. This aspect is extremely important from a Restaurant point of view since it provides the flexibility to adapt to customers’ changing eating habits. However, it is also very relevant for Distributors allowing them to take advantage of this data to better understand what demands to anticipate and to offer products that are more suitable to customers’ desires.

Founded in 2014, FreshMenu is creating a buzz in the market with its innovative and freshly cooked meals. After working with a couple of start-ups like TutorVista, BlueStone and Ola Cabs, Rashmi Daga, an alumnus of the IIM, Ahmedabad started the concept of FreshMenu which she has always dreamt off. It is an online restaurant delivery platform that delivers chef-cooked fresh meals in a box to customers residing within a 5 kms radius of their satellite kitchen. One can access the menu through its website, app, or food aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato.

The group today clocks about 14,000 orders per day with burrito bowl (Mexican), chicken steaks (international), doner chicken rice bowl (Middle Eastern), and teriyaki chicken hot pot (Japanese), as their bestselling products.. Excerpts from the interview:

What was the whole idea behind FreshMenu?

I’ve always dreamt about owning a listed company. I worked at a start-up and then bootstrapped a start-up in 2011. The idea of FreshMenu came to me because the need for good quality, fresh, fast and accessible food that could be delivered to your doorstep seemed like a requirement nobody was catering to.

Brief us about your business model.

Our business model has always been ensuring that our consumer is less than 5kms away from a kitchen, ensuring fresh food that can be delivered as fast as possible. We cook our own food and deliver it, ensuring we are in control of the whole process thereby ensuring quality.

What challenges did you faced while stepping into the market?

No different from any other entrepreneur. I actually think I had it easier than a lot of other people as we were based in Bangalore. The city was already clued-in to the idea of start-ups and therefore things moved pretty smoothly.

What is your uniqueness?

Our business model and our constant interaction with our customers ensures we’re always ahead in the game. From launching brand new dishes almost every single day, to curated menus for keto, low carb-high protein enthusiasts, to bringing back heritage grains into our daily meals – we like listening to our consumers and tweaking our menu around their requirements.

What is the role of technology in your overall operations?

Technology drives us. Being a cloud kitchen, our business comes mostly from online orders sourced through our own website, app and our presence on other food aggregators. Technology also helps us run our delivery process successfully. I cannot even imagine FreshMenu without apt technology.

How do you decide on your pricing?

The idea is to always keep our prices as competitive as possible. Nobody considers our pricing as exorbitant and we’d like to keep it that way. The more accessible the price, the more comfortable the consumer. 

What is your expansion plans?

We are expanding into a few more cities soon, but before that we’re excited about adding new kitchens in our already existing markets. We recently opened a new kitchen in Chakala, Mumbai and are glad that we can now serve in areas like Santa Cruz, Kalina and surrounding neighbourhoods.

In FY17, FreshMenu marked 124 percent growth in revenue to Rs 70.9 crore from Rs 31.7 crore last year, as per documents filed with the registrar of companies. With a strategic expansion plans and dedication towards the quality of food, Daga is all head high towards the glorious growth of the company. In 2017, FreshMenu opened its first physical outlet as a front-facing outlet at Bengaluru Airport, however there is no development on the physical outlet known yet.

India’s Food & Beverages sector is an unorganized and chaotic USD 50 billion industries with an incredibly low spend of 5% of top line revenue on technology. It is an extremely competitive space, with several players catering to different ends of the market, and relying on technology sporadically. Between large e-commerce players and online platforms promoting unfair competition and damaging the brand of restaurateurs and easily distracted customers, managing operations becomes incredibly complex. And, to solve this issue for restaurant owners and managers to balance supplies, inventory, order curation, order communication, order fulfillment, payment systems, and customer satisfaction, Uplodefoodies are bridging this gap in the market. Excerpts from the interview:

What was the whole idea coming up with Uplodefoodie?

At Uplodefoodie we realized that there is a gap in the food and beverages space about how food and beverages expense is managed and there is lots of chaos on the large extent. Though there are technology players who are trying to solve some problems but there is still a void gap which we decided to fill where we can transform their unorganized operation in a very organized manner so that they can increase the number of footfall and meanwhile increase the revenue.

How much have you invested in coming up with this concept?

We have been investing in this project from last three years. We have developed a 360 solution and a have a very big team working on it and that’s the effort and the amount that we have invested in developing this product. It is around 20 per cent of what technology guys invest into building a technology altogether.

What were the challenges you faced while growing this business?

The initial challenge started when we started going out and discussing the same with the restaurant owners. It took around 11-12 months to make the product more mature and suitable to the industry. That’s when we started going out and talking to different restaurant owners and managers so that we can built more powerful product at the same time as we are a software company and have lots of experience into the technology building. It also so helped us to create crisp and value added solution. For eg: we have an automated engine and what it does is that there is no need to carry a card, however the system counts and tacks it and it calculates the ratio of the customer coming at the restaurant. Then we have the dynamic advertisements program to name a few.

Is there a revenue sharing with Restaurant?

Yes we have a revenue sharing model with the restaurant. We also charge small token amount when a restaurant is on boarding us for the first time and we put little charge on the advertisements.

Are you also partnering with brands like CCD and Starbucks to name a few?

For brands like CCD, Starbucks and McDonald’s they already have an organized culture wherein they organize things. We want to partner with small restaurants that don’t have an access to the technology.

How these technology companies are contributing to start-up world?

Whatever data the technology company is providing to the startups are actually helping them to come up with better understanding of their businesses and helping the enterprises to grow better.

What is your plan expanding Uplodefoodie?

We want to cover Pan India. In parallel we have done the same marketing in the US, Singapore, Australia and Dubai and we have got very good response on the same and we can very soon expand to these countries.

Digitalization has taken the food industry by storm. Restaurants are now focusing on introducing various modes of payments which can attract the customers increasing their sales. With the younger generations invading the food market, the trend has now shifted from just trying the delicious cuisines. People now seek for experience other than the food and ambiance provided at the restaurant.

Marketing specialists are innovating and coming up with various ways which can gain the loyalty and interest of the customers. Digital payment method is something which the market has come up with involving various payment players of our country. Restaurants have adopted this trend making things simple and interesting for the customers.

Renowned digital payment company PayU India has recently introduced the latest payment method called ‘LazyPay’ which is a payment facility for the consumers involved with a brand on a regular basis which involves small value transactions on various e-commerce portals. The entire idea is to make the checkouts faster reducing the friction of online payments.

LazyPay ensures that while transacting the credit is done in the form of dues during the payment cycle instead of filling the card details in the app for the checkout. It  provides the facility of paying later, extending the amount from Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000 depending upon the previous transaction history of the customer.

“LazyPay option for transaction has certainly attracted many food lovers. Without the stress of paying the amount at the time of ordering food, people can now enjoy the food without paying the money at the time of transaction. Restaurants are slowly and steadily adapting to this transaction idea and is expected that most of the restaurants will soon be having this method under their brand,” says Chef Shah Nawaz Hussain, Director, Al-Nawaz.    

It clubs the entire digital transactions available on the websites which is using the PayU gateway which can be further made by the customer after 15 days without any interest rate. It can be said that LazyPay is trying to create a kirana store experience where the shopkeeper allows the customer to take the products home and pay later because of the believe they are having for them.

Helping the customers

LazyPay has partnered with 5 big merchants and 12 smaller ones including Zomato and Swiggy. The company is already claiming 10 million users approximately and is in hope to acquire another 5 millions in the next 2 years. They are having a real time dept write off in place for miscreants.

LazyPay’s idea is attracting a lot of customers which is expected to increase the online purchase for various brands. It is expected that soon this deferred payment method is going to create a lot of buzz in the upcoming time and the process have already started. The key feature makes the transactions smooth and seamless without any transaction failures, no need for passwords etc.

PayU India is planning to invest $50 million in LazyPay over the upcoming 3 years. The company claims to achieve another 5 million users in the upcoming year as it is already creating a sensation of buzz in the market. PayU India being the largest merchant distribution network in the online payment space will be looking to expand their reach using their presence in the market.

Investment scenario in food business has become tougher over the last three years. From being guardian investors to mentoring the brand from the scratch investors today look out for value addition in the brand. It’s not just about the model but overall aspect of the business; how different is the concept, how much are customers liking the brand, what the cash flow is and how much money they can get in return.  It’s not just about raising funding but how you utilise it and maximise that funding.

Breaking the myth

If you are opening a restaurant or a cloud kitchen today you need to understand that you will not be able to raise funds on power point presentation. You really need to show proof of concept which means that you will need to open the restaurant, put the equipment, get the customers in, run it for about 6-8 months and show that you are unit positive before you look for an investor. “Proof of concept has become very important and a positive unit economics. Your idea is really solid, your food concept stands apart in the city, you are able to pull the crowd, you are able to do digital marketing right, and you are able to get your catchment area, operation, sourcing right,” shares Sumit Sinha, Angel Investor, Terrals Holdings adding that there are multiple requirements in food business and each need to be right before you actually go out and see funds. One needs to make sure that they are cash positive before they look out for an outside partner.

“You need approach 30-40 investors before you raise fund. But the important thing is you need to be realistic. The money which is coming into the business should be utilised in the plan that the group has made. You buy everything in credit. You do not hold the inventory and you collect everything on cash,” adds Biju Jose Thomas, Director & COO, Vasudev Adigas Fast Food Pvt. Ltd.  

Food-tech is no more exciting

The food-tech industry has been harsh. There was an uptake in 2015 but since then there is lots of pressure on food-tech companies. In food-tech one need to touch upon 200 investors before they actually get the funding. “Gone are the days when the angel investor would be your guardian investor who has signed your first check because they like you,” points Kailash Nath, Innovation Fellow, Bharat Innovation Fund. Things have changed a lot in early stage ecosystem where angel investors also ask questions. But they really want to look into the outlook that the brand brings into the business. It’s not about quantum of money but how this money would help the brand make a difference in their growth plan and what’s it that they are adding to in the ecosystem.

It’s More Than Just Food

These days the whole market has divided into two segments. One the restaurant or the one who prepares food and delivers it or serves it at a place verses the ancillary business. There is a downside if you are running a cloud kitchen. But a lot of ancillary businesses which are into analytics, servicing these businesses or into the HORECA model which supplies the raw materials to these models are really doing well. And, investment is really picking up. Both angel and VC community is looking favourable at this sector.  “The whole game is about your revenue and the top line and how you are able to sustain it for a longer period and it depends on three factors- your customers, the volumes and the ticket size,” points Anadi Charan Sahu, General Manager & Regional Head, SIDBI, Bengaluru.

Staying in touch with your regular customers and expanding the new base is very important in restaurant business these days. And, restaurants prefer social media as one of the most preferred mode of communication as it instantly activates brand recall.

What does a customer do before dining?

When planning a dining date with family and friends people are confused on choosing the best restaurant suiting to everyone’s palate. According to a research 75 per cent of people say we will go to a restaurant if it is recommended by a friend and around 61 per cent feel that if the restaurant has much engagement on social media they go there by seeing their response on social platforms followed by reviews on Google or any other such platforms. No doubt, word of mouth is still ruling when it comes to recommending a restaurant among friends and family but gradually social picks are gaining ground all thanks to the food and digital influencers who keep posting food drooling images and stories via their Facebook post or Instagram stories. And, pictures are playing a bigger role in catching customer attention when choosing where to go searching for best food and dining experience.  

Enhancing Guest Experience...

Guest experience has taken a new turn in the food business today. Though, customers are always open for improvement and feedbacks but are looking for a customised experience. Around 79 per cent diners feels that guest experience enhance and improves and it cannot be fixed. However, 36 per cent of the guest thinks that one of the major things they look at a restaurant is to do online reservation and it should be available fairy easily and fast counting the same in overall experience.

How are you ordering food?

Getting food delivered at your ease is the new trend in the market. With both partners going out and working people these days prefer to get the food delivered at the tip of a button. According to a research 57 per cent diners are ordering food through restaurant website or mobile site and over 62 per cent diners would prefer ordering on mobile.

And, hence digital is the new go in today’s dining scenario though it cannot give tangible return. It really helps build connect and brand identity among your patrons.

As food industry is up for innovations and experiments these days; building new theories and new trends are the new words for this industry. And, the work has not finished yet, now they need to post their experiment every where possible, to make it count and in people’s knowledge. Key is to find the niche and experiment with that. Give customers something to relate i.e.’ cuisine, service, quality or ambience and make strategy according to that.

Adding Health Quotient:

Restaurants today are becoming health conscious by themselves. They are very choosey about picking up ingredients to make sure customer gets a healthy meal. A new trend is being witnessed in the US that the people there have stopped spending on restaurants but they spend on grocery. It tells that most of the people are not interested in dining out but getting the grocery in and cook by themselves. Similarly, a shift towards healthy food is happening in India. That is why restaurant food has moved to choose a healthy concept keeping in mind the consciousness for health of the precious customer.

Riding on Convenience:

Restaurants are also making food sector more convenient for eaters today. For example, Starbucks has an application where customer can choose the coffee and tell them from where the customer wants to pick it up. So they keep it ready and customer can just go to the counter and pick it up on the go. Another example is the kiosk at McDonald’s where one needs to punch in whatever he/ she wants to it and food comes out. Technology actually makes life much easier by making things accessible.

Value for Money:

As people look to restaurants to meet their daily needs, they are more likely to choose a restaurant to eat if it’s affordable. Restaurateurs have downshifted to quick service to capitalize on the huge opportunity food previously was reserved for the rich is becoming more accessible.

Competitive and Flexible:

Restaurant jobs are highly stressed, high turnover and average pay. Holding on to cooks and make staff wait is difficult. Regulations and conventions as well as competition from the gigantic economy make it even harder. On the other hand, it should be flexible where they can work on their terms so that they won’t feel overburdened.

Truth and Transparency:

Food system is moving towards transparency. Sustainable and ethical food production is going mainstream even Starbucks and Burger King are changing how they source their products which support producers who are aligned on a set of shared values. Consumers have access to more information than ever before. Therefore, the big brands are more likely to work with the producers who follow the same ethos as that brand does.

Transparent Supply Chain:

Today, food travels thousands of miles which sits idle for weeks and is meant for shelf life rather than for nutrition or taste. UberEATS have improved steps in traceability of all organic produce. Soon, smart phones and eventually autonomous cars and trucks will make it possible to match local supply with local demand in real time. So, the restaurateur will actually be able to know the origin of food.

All of these trends will take us to the future. There will be no more boring food; people will be able to get food bite anytime and anywhere.

The best thing which has originated from technological advancement is that people now connect on social media and comment and discuss about the foods and restaurants. Blog writing has also taken a shape with this advent and today food has become more appealing with digitization.

People these prefer to order food, choose the best restaurants and the cuisine by simply downloading the mobile apps which are easily available. For the past few years restaurant owners were not much serious about the promotion food online but with more people present and available on social platforms and the wave of influencers that is blowing in the restaurant business has pushed restaurant owners to be more technological advance. Food industry is of course creating new things but having said that we need to incorporate latest technology into food manufacture and production and bring it to an exponential level. The technological advances have made an impact everywhere and one of the places we’re seeing more and more technology is in the restaurant industry.

Disrupting Technology

Restaurants are now acquiring technology in each and every step of their promotion. Creating a Face book page, a Twitter page, bringing in the loyalty programs like coupons and email alerts on birthdays and anniversaries, tying up with the online food ordering website are all an efficient manner to create profitability for one’s own restaurant.

Touch screen Food Vendors and Vending Machines: Digital boxes of Ice cream which can produce variations of cool treats in seconds or the Coca-Cola's Freestyle soda fountain which has the potential to dispense more than 100 distinct beverages from one touch screen device are now an old age trend. People who are always on the go can grab quick bites and food of their choice at the vending machines and food counters available these days.

Tablet Restaurant Management: The app which was created by a team of restaurateurs turned software makers in Newyork give the owners a quick check of their restaurants. India alone is home to ‘N’ numbers of such apps these days which provides quick guide on where to go, what to eat and what’s trending.

LED Alert Systems: Kitchens can be loud and hectic and often staffed by people who speak different languages. And thus kitchen can be benefited from the illuminated alerts for example; the system alerts workers to time-sensitive tasks such as when the pots are washed or when silverware is dry and ready to be used. It can help maintain ambience in high-end eateries. “When I come back to India after my stint in global markets I asked the hotels if the kitchen was equipped with modern technologies, “shares Chef Sanjeev Kapoor who believes that it is impossible for a restaurant owner today to grow without the use of technology.

Virtual Menu: Virtual menus with nutritional information have become an important aspect of a restaurant’s success. Allowing your customers access to each menu item’s calorie count, fat content and ingredients increase the level of trust and transparency between customer and provider. Nowadays, all the restaurants offer ‘virtual menu’, an advance tech-menu which is available on the restaurant website and can be viewed tablets or, palmtops, smart phones where the customer can go in full details about each dish of menu card. For example, the recipe, method of preparation, calorie contents etc. The trend has influenced the restaurant business largely by bringing an experienced and influenced customer.

And, hence if you have a right kind of process then the business is bound to expand. Restaurants these days are implementing Airline Control Programme (ACP) to streamline the entire sourcing, selling and indenting. Customers want things to be in control these days and feel that they should be allowed enough information to make informed meal decision. 

There was a time when the primary goal of businesses was customer satisfaction. In today’s scenario, however, satisfaction is passé and engagement is the new buzzword. Consumers are no longer interested in having one-off experiences but in an ongoing association that can hold their interest.

This is the digital age with non-stop conversations taking place all over the web. The success mantra for companies today, therefore, is to become a good listener. But how does one do that while managing a business simultaneously? Emergence of applications that are more involved with the day to day consumer, as well as accessibility to smart devices are providing businesses with options aplenty to incorporate new contact channels and meaningfully engage their customers.

Food for thought: While all enterprises strive to engage their customers productively, those in the restaurant business have to work twice as hard. With new restaurants mushrooming up almost on a daily basis the industry is replete with competition on every step. And one bad interaction or experience with the customer can mean a huge loss of business and reputation in today’s socially connected world. And no business, especially the food business, can afford that. According to a study by Parature, US businesses lose an estimated $83 million annually due to poor customer service and 62 per cent of the US consumers have switched brands in the past year due to poor customer service. Restaurant owners need to understand that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work for its customers anymore, and precise, personalized engagement is the only way forward if they hope to remain competitive in today’s crowded marketplace.

Leveraging Technology for Customer Engagement: To engage the consumer of today, businesses have to understand their thought process. Today’s customer is aware, impatient and demanding – and he is socially connected at all times. The mobile revolution has brought about a massive change in how consumers expect their dining experience to be. Whether they use their iPhone to find the closest restaurant and map the best route there, or check online for menu information or customer reviews, restaurant patrons increasingly rely on technology to guide them to the table. And it’s not restricted to a specific age group! Let’s look at some numbers. Nation’s Restaurant News reports that 56 per cent of those between 45 and 64 have recently used tech options in restaurants and almost one-third have checked out restaurant locations using a smartphone. What’s more, four of ten prefer to use smartphones or tablets to “place orders, use rewards or special deals, make reservations or look up nutritional information”.

To catch the attention of such a customer, restaurants need to incorporate technology in their business process to create a more interactive experience for the customer, while providing value for their time and money. But does that mean eliminating human to human interaction completely? Not for now, at least. The key is to strike a balance between leveraging the potential of technology and still being able to provide a personal touch to the whole customer experience. After all, real hospitality and engagement means connecting with your guests on an emotional level to create a connection and build long lasting loyalty and a valued relationship.

How you achieve that emotional connect depends on how you choose to engage your customers. Depending on your setup, you need to choose what kind of technology options will help further your customer engagement strategy. But here are some essential technlogy solutions that should be on your business menu if they aren't already:

Customer Facing Technology: This essentially includes iPads/ Tablets and smarthphone apps that provide a window to your restaurant and make the dining experience a more pleasant one. Creating a more customized experience, tablets take the role of “a third server,” allowing guests to re-order drinks, order dessert and pay for the check. This optimizes service, minimizes interruptions and allows guests to be in greater control of their dining experience.

Operational technology: Restaurants can utilize technology to streamline their operations and create more efficient systems to run their business. Mobile technology can be used to track inventory, regular checklists, and can go so far as to be used in the similar way we use in our own home kitchens – as a way to help out new kitchen workers get a handle on the restaurant’s menu items.

CRM Technology: The CRM database gives you all the information and reports that you need to know about purchase and customer behaviour and helps you take informed decisions based on the data. Moreover, social networking sites provide a great platform for restaurants to interact with their customers at a personal level and get insights into their likes and dislikes, birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions. This will help you to further delight your customers by sending wishes and greetings along with special discounts, helping to build loyalty towards your restaurant.

Technology has never been more intuitive than it is today, and it’s only getting better. There isn’t any doubt that technological advances will serve to improve the experience — both for the food industry and for the patron. Yet with every new advance comes a new challenge and how restaurant owners deal with these advances is what will determine the future of their business - regardless of what’s on the menu.

                                                                                                                                                 Pic Courtesy: apple.com