The food business is enormous, ranking sixth in the world. Around 70% of total sales in this area are generated by retail startups. The food and retail business are worth $ 828.92 billion. The rise and development of verticals like food and grocery delivery, personal chefs, box delivery, and on-demand meals, are a few of the reasons why the food-tech business is growing at a rapid pace. There is a slew of successful food-tech firms operating across the world right now, as well as a slew of new and potential ones.
We’ve compiled a list of some of the most successful food-tech startups in this article.
Zomato
Zomato is an online and mobile app for restaurant discovery, ordering, pick-up, and table booking located in Gurgaon. Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah created Zomato in 2008. It is an Indian restaurant search and discovery service that now works in 24 countries and allows you to search from over a million restaurants around the world. The app and website also feature restaurant information and reviews, as well as the ability for users to upload images of the menu items they order as well as images of the establishment itself.
Zomato has also introduced a white-label platform that allows restaurants to construct their applications with unique features and combine them with Zomato’s “order and analytical” service. It also performed admirably during the pandemic. Glade Brook Capital, Ant Financial, and VY Capital are among the investors who have contributed $673 million to the firm.
Swiggy
Swiggy is a Bangalore-based food ordering and delivery company that also offers restaurant foodservice solutions. In 2014, the trio of Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy, and Rahul Jaimini established Swiggy. Swiggy’s CEO is Vishal Bhatia. They have a reputation for delivering meals and desserts from restaurants in under 40 minutes. Customers receive deliveries from the company’s smartphone-equipped delivery staff via an app that uses routing algorithms. Customers can also see the progress of their orders in real-time. Swiggy offered free delivery when it first launched. Swiggy now charges Rs. 30 (on average) for delivery, although it also offers free delivery on large orders.
FreshMenu
FreshMenu is a Bangalore-based business that uses the cloud kitchen idea and is a go-to for local meal delivery. It serves freshly prepared food from a variety of cuisines, including oriental, continental, Italian, Mughlai, and other regional specialities. The firm offers a daily menu and delivers freshly made meals to customers’ doorsteps in 45 minutes or less. It runs a network of kitchens throughout the city and owns a delivery fleet.
FreshMenu’s meals are made with the highest quality ingredients, including farm-fresh veggies, dairy, and meat. Daily, it serves roughly 12000 orders, with an average ticket amount of INR 320.
Faasos
Faasos Food Services Pvt. Ltd. is a food startup based in Pune. Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee established Faasos in 2011. It’s an online meal ordering service that’s presently available in 16 Indian cities and accepts orders through its mobile app and website. Faasos operates based on aggregating numerous restaurant chains and individual eateries to provide a wide range of foods. It was able to strike a balance between scalability and long-term viability.
Faasos processes approximately 18000 orders every day. Behrouz Biriyani, Ovenstory, and Kettle & Eggs are among the company’s brands. It has raised $80 million in capital from investors such as Alteria Capital, Sistema Asia Capital, Evolvence India, and others.
Box8
Box8 is an Indian fast service restaurant chain established in Mumbai. Users can explore numerous product menus and place orders for home delivery through Box8’s online platform. The app runs smoothly on both iOS and Android devices.
The firm has secured $12 million, which will be used to develop technology, grow the workforce, extend market penetration, and create a consistent consumer experience across mobile and web platforms. It has operations in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Gurgaon at the moment. Trifecta Capital, Mayfield, IIFL Wealth Management, Seed Venture Fund, and 42 other investors are on the list.
Hungerbox
Sandipan Mitra created HungerBox, a B2B food-tech firm, in 2007. The company provides food solutions for corporate clients and is a full-stack B2B and F&B (food and beverage) technology venture. It currently serves over 100 clients across India and continues to wow them with its services daily.
HungerBox is redefining office food and cafeteria management with the support of the city’s best caterers, as well as best-in-class technology, infrastructure, and robust operational processes, all while maintaining food quality and safety. The startup intends to boost the productivity of food businesses (restaurants, delivery startups, and so on) by providing a technology-based approach that allows them to focus just on food.
Eatfit
Mukesh Bansal, the founder of Cure. fit, launched the company in 2016 in Bangalore. Mukesh is also a Myntra co-founder. Cure.fit is an Indian health and fitness company that provides digital and offline fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being experiences. It aspires to make fitness enjoyable and simple. Cure.fit focuses on preventive healthcare and allows customers to manage their health more effectively through a variety of services.
Eat.fit, a brand of Cure.fit, offers fresh and custom-made salads. It also provides fresh, home-cooked meals that are low in carbohydrates, high in protein, and rich in green veggies. Healthy food is the focus, which includes Indian cuisine, fusion cuisine, salads, and snacks. Kalaari Capital, Accel Partners, and Oaktree Capital Management have invested $170 million in Cure.fit.
MagicPin
MagicPin is an online coupon portal. Diners are rewarded with points and money. Anshoo Sharma and Brij Bhushan launched the company in 2015. MagicPin is available in 16 locations across India, including Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune. The site, which has 1.4 million members, generates Rs. 30 crores in monthly sales for partner food and beverage (F&B) companies including KFC and Hard Rock Café. MagicPin is also looking at two more industries: food and beauty and health.
Diners can receive cashback by uploading a snapshot of their bill along with a selfie with their meal at a MagicPin-partnered restaurant. MagicPin combines data from check-ins, recommendations, and reviews in a live feed-style timeline display to boost user engagement.
Swadhika Foods
Swadhika Foods is a food processing startup based in Chennai, India. It is a leading provider and exporter of frozen IQF fruits and vegetables, as well as frozen ready-to-eat/cook items. Swadhika Foods is APEDA, USFDA, FSSAI, ISO, BRC, and HACCP certified to assure consistency and compliance with international food safety standards. Swadhika Foods has a network of the best partners in the industry to assure a consistent source, production, and quality.
What’s Good
Crave, an aggregator system that makes it easier for chefs to order quality foods from local suppliers gave birth to What’s Good. The goal is to take on big food by bringing together independent growers and small producers with concerned and empowered consumers directly.
The switch to a consumer platform has proven to be a wise decision, especially given the lockdown, as it has allowed stranded people to acquire fresh local products directly from local growers and farms. Customers can shop from a variety of sources at their leisure thanks to the platform’s aggregation of hundreds of suppliers. Customers can order things using the app and pick them up locally or have them delivered. What’s Good may be accessed on the move using a mobile device.
The Kitchen Door
Food businesses can rent commissary and shared commercial kitchen spaces through The Kitchen Door. Chefs, caterers, bakers, food truck drivers, and other food industry pioneers can enter their zip code and The Kitchen Door will display available kitchen spaces in their area. One of the advantages of connecting kitchens with customers is that it lowers the entry barrier for cash-strapped businesses, allowing them to pursue their goals without the inconvenience of hiring their kitchen. Meanwhile, avoiding the dangers and impracticality of deviating from the rules by attempting it at home. The amount of available commercial kitchen facilities for rent, as well as new concepts wishing to launch their culinary enterprises, has increased significantly in recent months.
Hungry
Hungry offers a cost-effective solution to get excellent chef-prepared meals delivered to your door. The app connects renowned chefs directly with hungry customers, allowing caterers and personal chefs — who have been hit hard by the cancellation of so many parties, weddings, and other regular gigs this summer – to connect with hungry families.
Platforms like Hungry are likely to play a defining role in shaping how we get high-quality meals in the future, as well as give a new route for independent cooks and caterers to make a living in a world where social distancing is the norm. The Hungry team was able to make substantial pivots to their business model to meet the concerns of the day after closing a funding round just before Covid-19.
Lunchbox
Lunchbox bills itself as a restaurant’s all-in-one ordering system. The platform assists restaurants in establishing digital ordering systems using branded applications, websites, kiosk interfaces, and other means. The system has built-in marketing capabilities to help increase conversions and optimise with analytics, and it interfaces with all of the major delivery partners and POS systems. The key advantage for restaurants is the ease with which they can set up and enter product data into a single system.
Lunchbox developed two new solutions in response to the pandemic to assist restaurants in pivoting.
Waitr
Waitr, founded in Louisiana, aspires to be the delivery system with a conscience. This method has taken Waitr from significant losses at the start of the year to a major turnaround at a time when faith in large delivery platforms is low and people are looking locally to see how they can support businesses and improve their communities.
Carl Grimstad, the company’s CEO and Chairman, reveals that as the Covid-19 outbreak expanded across the country, they received fewer orders in mid-March. “Orders began to rebound near the end of March, and have continued to climb in April,” he says.
A community-focused delivery model may be exactly what people are asking for as distancing measures become the new normal.
Bitesquad
Bitesquad is similar to Waitr in that it partners with independent eateries to provide a higher-quality experience. The hot food and groceries platform was developed by restaurant industry veterans who recognised a better way of doing things in Minneapolis’ restaurant sector.
The focus is on providing a convenient, high-quality service for customers and maintaining the reputation of restaurant partners without hurting them with margin-squeezing fees, from preserving the dignity of drivers to ensuring food arrives in tip-top shape.
The food-tech industry is developing and evolving at the same time, as consumers strive for a healthier lifestyle. In India, substantial transformation and growth in the number of food-tech companies are expected in the coming years. Please leave a comment if you know of any more great food-tech startups in India that should be included on this list.