Box8 bags 50 crore INR funding from IIFL Seed Ventures Fund & Mayfield

Delhi-based startup Original Ice Creams today said it has raised Rs 3 crore in equity funding from Maverick group for a 30 per cent stake in the company.

"Three of our outlets are already operational and we were able to achieve break even in the first month itself. We have planned to open 30 more outlets in the NCR region by 2019-20," Original Ice creams founder Vinay Gaur said.

He added that the company will use the finance for expanding retail distribution into other cities of northern India, including Lucknow, Jaipur and Chandigarh.

Nanotech startup Log 9 raises Rs 3 cr

Bengaluru based nanotechnology startup Log 9 Materials today said it has raised around Rs 3 crore from Metaform Ventures and others.

The pre series - A funding also saw participation from Hemant Luthra (Chairman, Mahindra CIE), GEMS and other angel investors, the company said in a statement.

Log 9 will be using the latest funds to strengthen its commercial operations and patented product portfolio, as well as boosting R&D activities extensively, it added.

Data science expert Nuria Oliver joins Comviva Board .

Mobility solutions provider Comviva today said data science expert Nuria Oliver has joined its advisory board.

Oliver is director of research in data science at Vodafone, chief data scientist at Data-Pop Alliance and chief scientific advisor for the Vodafone Institute, Comviva said in a statement.

"She will work with the Comviva leadership team, providing strategic recommendations on the company's existing portfolio and new initiatives. She will also provide her expertise on strategic alliances and investments," it added.

Gulabs, the makers of tasty and delectable hand-crafted Indian snacks has partnered with BigBasket, the leading online food and grocery store.

Under this partnership, customers in Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad will be able to buy Gulabs products through the BigBasket.com website from the comforts of their home. The much sought after items of Gulabs such as Khakhras, Shartbats, Masalas and Pickles will be available at the website from now on.

Commenting on the partnership, Ruchika Gupta, VP – Sales and Marketing of Gulabs said, “BigBasket is a renowned player for online food and grocery shopping and the collaboration between Gulabs and BigBasket will let the consumers across different cities access our products in a jiffy. BigBasket’s strong foothold in these cities and our handcrafted beverages and snacks is a right combination to make this partnership a success.”

Gulabs Khakhras are available in Ajwain, Besan, Methi, Moongadi and Plain flavours. Shartbats come in Jeera, Lemon Ginger, Lemon, Paan, Pudina, Rose, Saunf and Thandai. In Masalas, there is a wide variety that includes Garam Masala, Malagapodi, Rasam masala, Rice podi, Sambar masala, Tea masala powder and Ukali. Tangy Lemon (oil free) flavour is available in Pickles.

Having served lunch tiffins across Mumbai, the Mumbai dabbawalas have planned to set up a start-up business, in the food processing sector.

President Mumbai dabbawalas association Ritesh Andre opened up about the startup business while speaking to the media after a talk at Karnavati University in Ahmedabad, saying that the start-up will supply organic produce.

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

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

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

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

India’s leading impact investor Aavishkaar led by Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group, is set to invest Rs 35 crore into packaged foods startup Kottaram Agro Foods that sells products under the brand ‘Soulfull’.

The investment will be made through its $200 mn Aavishkaar Bharat Fund with the fund having completed its first close at $95 mn late last year.

The round marks Soulfull’s first institutional fund raising exercise. The Bangalore-based firm brings traditional grains such as millets back to the consumer in modern avatars processing grains like Ragi into healthy breakfast and snack options such as flakes, Ragi bites, muesli and ready-to-cook oat-millet meals.

“There are immense opportunities in the packaged foods industry in India which is growing rapidly at 20-25%. The partnership with Aavishkaar will help Soulfull strengthen its product portfolio, accelerate marketing and expand its distribution reach to over 50,000 retail outlets in the next 3 years,” said Prashant Parameswaran, MD & CEO of Kottaram Agro Foods.

This fund raise will also mark the brand’s foray into the beverages category as the company looks forward to launch ‘Smoothix’, its high protein, health drink made out of 12 natural grains.

The Aavishkaar Bharat Fund is targeting early-to-mid stage investment opportunities in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, clean technology, education and financial inclusion.

The 2014 established food-tech startup SmartQ has raised $1 million from a group of Dubai-based investors. The round also saw participation from existing investor YourNest.

The company offers digital cafeteria solutions to eliminate queues, minimise wait time and offer a better experience. The platform includes mobile application, automated billing kiosks, centralised billing system, NFC (near field communication) prepaid cards, POS software etc. The company clocks over 1 lakh transactions everyday and has been growing 50% month-on-month. It counts companies like Shell and Epsilon amongst its clients.

Krishna Wage,Founder and CEO, SmartQ, said, “The funding has enabled us to focus on the next level of strategic growth while also scaling up on technology, talent and brand building in full swing. SmartQ intends to use the raised funds to bolster its efforts in growing business outside India.”

Anvita Varshney former MD of Lazada group, has joined the board of advisors at SmartQ, as part of the funding.

Michelin recommended Chef Gautam Chaudhary has acquired Gurugram based food start up, World in a box.

While details of the deals were not revealed, it is supposedly a cash plus equity deal.

“We are delighted by this association, Chef brings with him over 20 years of culinary and management experience” said Nitish Jha, Founder of World in a box, who will now be moving to much larger role of managing operations and marketing at Demiurgic group.

World in a box has done exceptionally well in last two years in gurugram food market. From winning the Prestigious best online food delivery award to the pioneer of “Make your own meal”, which gives a customer the choice of customizing his meals, they have made a niche clientele for themselves.

Demiurgic Hospitality is coming with their second brand “Deseez:, a boutique North Indian delivery kitchen by 3^rd week of September. The group has lot of other interesting plans, details for which were untold right now.” We plan to come up with multiple food brands under our parent umbrella, catering to most of the food universe” said Gautam Chaudhary, founder of Demiurgic group who also specializes in progressive Indian Cuisine. 

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

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

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

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

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

Yumist, a Delhi-based food tech start-up, which operates in the daily meals segment, is planning to raise 2 million USD to scale up operations, as per the sources (who do not want to named) reveal.

One of the sources also said that right now they are looking for investors, who can help them raise 2 million USD. The idea behind this is to scale up its operations on Delhi-NCR (national capital region).

It is known for serving home-style meals, prepared in its own kitchens. Recently it has opened a 12, 000 square feet kitchen to serve the Delhi-NCR market.

The food tech start-up is backed by Ronnie Screwvala's fund Unilazer Ventures and Rehan Yar Khan's Orios Venture Partners.

In December 2015, Yumist raised $2 million in a round led by Unilazer Ventures. Existing investor Orios Venture Partners also participated in the round.

As per the statements of the second source, even after shutting down its Bengaluru operations, the company is still planning to spread its arms in the other states and cities to serve its food.

He also added that the sector has gone through a lot in the last one year, which has reduced the competition in the food-tech space. Thus it hopes to get a scope for the surviving start-ups at expanding their operations.

RI Bureau

Mind Curries Hospitality Pvt. Ltd., food start-up based at Delhi aims for 100cr turnover as the company is all set to introduce trend changing themed restaurants by the end of 2018.

As a part of their core strategy, the food retail start-up will be introducing three restaurants in Delhi NCR. The two restaurants are inspired from the popular cartoon series The Addams Family and The Flintstones which will revive your childhood memories while the third one promise to mesmerize diners with the fusion of Indian and Pakistani flavours and casual dinning Further, the company is looking forward to tap other regional markets for expanding the business pan India.

Bhanu Nehra, Managing Director of Mind Curries Hospitality comments on this recent development, “We are glad that we are coming up with such distinctive restaurant concepts which will not only make diners nostalgic but also give them an overview of changing dining concepts in India. We are very positive and excited about these upcoming ventures as they are going to take dining to a whole new level”.

The company’s vision is to pacify the taste buds of masses with their undiscovered theme restaurant concepts pan India. Started with a paid-capital of approximately Rs.70 cr, food start-up by Bhanu Nehra is making its way for itself in the F & B sector since its establishment in August 2015.

Nusra

In a bid to scale up business operations and further sustain its market leadership, Mumbai based online food curation and delivery service provider Holachef, has appointed Rohit Sharma as its new Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSO).

With over 21 years of rich and diverse hospitality sector experience, Rohit joins Holachef from his previous stint at Tata Starbucks as Director of Supply Chain.

“I am excited to join Holachef and be part of the disruption that is a foot in the traditional food services industry. This clearly means newer challenges as well as immense possibilities for us at Holachef.  Automation and supply chain process efficiency will be critical areas of focus for me. I look forward to working with the extremely passionate team at Holachef as we work towards our mission to be the extended kitchen for consumers across cities.” said Rohit Sharma, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Holachef

His other stints include work with Nirulas Corner House Pvt Ltd, Devyani International Ltd, Domino’s Pizza and Taj Mahal Hotel in various capacities. 

Rohit Sharma’s experience of handling end-to-end supply chain portfolio, building competitive market positioning for several food and hospitality brands is expected to fuel Holachef’s focus towards profitable and sustainable growth. While being the Senior Supply Chain Director at Tata Starbucks, Rohit brought key attributes of strategic and tactical leadership towards growth of the business.

As the new Chief Supply Chain officer, Rohit would be responsible to look after the entire food preparation infrastructure, supply chain automation, sourcing, quality control, food process management and expansion of food categories at Holachef. His charter would also include enhancing revenue growth and cost savings through strategic process improvements, savings initiatives, leveraging unutilized capacities, development of transportation networks among others.

Speaking on the announcement, Co-Founder & CEO Saurabh Saxena said “Rohit has an excellent track record of building successful teams and driving tangible results through streamlining processes,” His experience with multiple high growth organisations and exposure to technological driven supply chain management will be invaluable to Holachef at this juncture of high-speed growth.

Holachef continues to focus on product innovation and critical talent hire in its aspiration to create a food curation category and growth. The company bagged an undisclosed amount of funding from Ratan Tata in August 2015 and earlier also raised a Series A funding of INR 20 Crore in a round led by Kalaari Capital in June 2015.