Excl: Food ordering app TinyOwl in talks to raise $5M from existing investors Sequoia & Nexus

TinyOwl Technology Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai-based startup that offers a location-based mobile app for food ordering, is in talks with its existing investors, Sequoia Capital and Nexus Venture Partners to raise $5 million in its Series B round of funding.

"We plan to raise $5 million. The amount may increase. As of now we have interest from our existing investors. The whole amount may come from them," Harshvardhan Mandad, co-founder and CEO of TinyOwl, told Techcircle.in. "It may take two-three months," he added.

The money will be used for the company's geographical expansion.

The service is currently available only in Mumbai. It plans to launch its services across four more cities -- Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Pune -- in the next six months. It also plans to hire 200 more employees across technology and business development departments. It currently has 300 employees.

The company raised $3 million from Sequoia and Nexus in December last year. "So far we haven't burnt the entire amount," Mandad said.

Separate emails sent to Sequoia Capital and Nexus Venture Partners did not elicit a response.

Founded in March 2014 by a group of IIT Bombay alumni, TinyOwl allows users to order food from restaurants and have it delivered at their doorstep. Consumers can manage the entire process including selecting and ordering the dishes and tracking the delivery. Users can either make payments through their credit card or opt for cash-on-delivery. The app is available on Android and iOS platforms.

The company is not making any money now but it soon plans to start charging 10 to 20 per cent cut from the restaurants, it signs up.

It has expanded to over 4,300 restaurants from 3,500 during last month. It claims it facilitates 3,000 to 5,000 transactions per day, with the average value of order being Rs 300.

Onine food ordering is one of the hottest sectors in India that has seen a lot of action, of late. Leading players in the space include Rocket Internet-backed Foodpanda.com and Axon Partners Group-backed JustEat.in. Foodpanda acquired Delivery Hero-backed online food ordering venture TastyKhana for an undisclosed amount in November last year.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)