Ratan Tata backs food-tech startup Holachef

Holachef Hospitality Pvt Ltd, which runs an online marketplace where professionals and amateur chefs can sell meals, has secured an undisclosed amount in funding from Tata Sons' chairman emeritus Ratan Tata.

This would be Tata's 12th known investment in a new-age technology startup.

"Tata's name and body of work are synonymous with trust and consumer focus. By winning his trust, we have raised the bar of quality and excellence for ourselves," Saurabh Saxena, co-founder and CEO of Holachef, said in a press statement.

Tata's personal investment is part of the Series A financing round which was led by Kalaari Capital and others in June.

Holachef had secured Rs 20 crore (about $3.1 million) from Kalaari and existing investor India Quotient three months ago.

Founded in May 2014, Holachef offers daily menus for lunch, snacks and dinner prepared by city-based chefs. It offers about 50 meal choices everyday and each meal is priced between Rs 120 to Rs 350.

In June, the startup claimed that it serves 1,000 orders a day across locations in Mumbai. It receives over 65 per cent of total orders through the mobile app while the rest comes through the website. Presently, the company has operations in Mumbai and Pune.

The food-tech space has become a preferred bastion for VC investments. Startups in this space either offer an ordering platform from restaurants or run their own kitchens/cafes. Some serve ready-to-cook or ready-to-serve meal boxes.

DropKaffe, an online startup that delivers brewed coffee and refreshments within Bangalore, has just raised $300,000 in seed funding led by angel investor Manish Singhal and US-based venture capital firm P39 Capital.

an online startup that delivers brewed coffee and refreshments within Bangalore, has just raised $300,000 in seed funding led by angel investor Manish Singhal and US-based venture capital firm P39 Capital.

For Ratan Tata, this is another deal where he has made personal investment in a Kalaari Capital portfolio firm. Tata, who has been busy investing in Indian as well as international tech startups after retiring as Tata Sons chairman in December 2012, had joined the VC firm in an advisory role early this year.

He has also backed ventures such as Infinite Analytics, Ampere, Ola, Paytm's parent One97 Communications, Snapdeal, Urban Ladder, Bluestone and CarDekho besides investing in Chinese handset maker Xiaomi.

Early this month, Tata participated in a funding round at YourStory, whose content and events compete with some offerings from Techcircle.in and VCC Events, which are both part of the 10-year-old VCCircle Network. The parent of VCCircle Network—whose business lines include subscription data products, events, training programmes and a subscription-led news website and app focused on the startup ecosystem as well as business at large in India—was acquired by News Corp in March.