Online meal service startup Holachef.com raises $323K in seed funding led by India Quotient

Mumbai-based Holachef Hospitality Pvt Ltd, the company behind online meal service startup Holachef.com, has raised around $323,000 (about Rs 2 crore) in seed funding led by early stage investor India Quotient, as per separate media reports. The funding was in the form of a convertible note.

We have contacted Holachef co-founder Saurabh Saxena for more details and will update the post as and when we hear from him.

The company was founded in May 2014 by IIT-Bombay graduates Saxena, Anil Gelra and Ritu Rana. Saxena had previously founded Aakar Knowledge Solutions, which was acquired by Mexus Education (a Bilakhia Holdings Company).

Holachef.com is a marketplace of meals that curates chefs ranging from executive chefs to amateurs. While some chefs prepare the food at the company's kitchen, others have a kitchen of their own. The firm also manages the logistics of the food (including packaging, storage and delivery) and claims to deliver the food within 20 minutes of placing the order. Currently, the firm only delivers in select suburbs of Mumbai and it claims to be delivering about 150 orders daily.

This is the second startup in the online meal ordering space to be backed by India Quotient. The early stage investor has also backed Gurgaon-based Frsh, which prepares food in-house. Interestingly, India Quotient bootcamp had earlier incubated Imly.in, a startup that connected home-chefs with curious foodies. However, the startup shut shop last year.

Recently, a number of startups in the online meal ordering space have raised funds. These include TapCibo that raised funding from Alok Goel, founder, FreeCharge. SpoonJoy raised funding from Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal; its chief product officer Mekin Maheshwari; Sahil Barua, co-founder of Delhivery; and Abhishek Goyal, founder of Tracxn. Yumist also raised funding from Orios Venture Partners.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)