Excl: TravelKhana raises funding from Palaash Ventures, others

New Delhi-based Duronto Technologies Pvt Ltd, the company that owns and operates , an online food delivery service for Indian Railways' commuters, has secured an undisclosed amount in funding from Palaash Ventures and a few individual investors including Axind Software CEO Matteo Chiampo, a source privy to the development told VCCircle.

When contacted, TravelKhana CEO Pushpinder Singh said, "All I can confirm at this stage is that we are in very healthy discussions."

Palaash Ventures spokesperson declined to comment.

TravelKhana was founded in 2012 by Singh, a BITS Pilani graduate who also holds a B Tech in engineering from IIT (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi. Prior to setting up this venture, he was CTO at INCA Informatics. In the past, he had worked with Lotus Interworks and Sopra Consulting in various positions.

Travelkhana enables railway commuters to order food online or over the phone. Passengers can select the food of their choice from restaurants along the route they are commuting. The restaurants are selected and verified by TravelKhana personnel and the platform tracks train status, coordinates food preparation time with the restaurant to ensure that the passengers receive meals on their seats.

Set up early this year by former media industry executives, including Indian Angel Network member Piyush Goyal, Palaash Ventures is a sector-agnostic investment fund. It invests up to $5 million with average ticket size ranging from Rs 10 lakh to up to Rs 2.5 crore. It has offices in Bangalore and Delhi; its portfolio includes firms such as Safe Harvest Pvt Ltd, Voxapp and Ecosense.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)