Exclusive: App for pre-ordering at restaurants Zeppery raises angel funding

Delhi-based startup Inweone Technologies Pvt Ltd that has developed an app Zeppery to allow users to pre-order food at restaurants and other food outlets, has raised Rs 50 lakh ($77,000) in an angel round of funding from doctor cum angel investor Suyash Sharma, co-founder of the firm told Techcircle.in.

The company will use the capital for marketing the app and acquiring B2B clients, essentially restaurants and food courts in Delhi-NCR. It is going to launch its operations by next week.

"Besides reducing waiting time, our platform will enable visuals of what one is ordering, ability to know the status of the order, ability to choose and update from a la-carte," Utkarsh Srivastava, co-founder of the firm, who had earlier worked at Sasken Communication Technologies, said.

Srivastava, who is an alumnus of Shri Ram Murti Smarak College of Engineering & Technology, Bareilly, said: "Zeppery will find a place for its clients anywhere where you have a huge footfall, take malls, food courts, airports or railway station with huge queues and less menu visibility."

The startup has tied up with a number of outlets of brands such as Haldiram's, Bikanervala and Moti Mahal, among others.

The venture will have a fixed percentage commission on every order but it plans to generate additional revenue streams such as advertisement and selling data analytics report to restaurant clients.

Lalit Vijay, another co-founder and an alumnus of IMS Engineering College, Ghaziabad, said the firm has been incubated under 'Turning Ideas', a startup incubator based out of Noida.

"The idea is amazing. This is a problem that every customer has faced and wants a solution to. Who likes to wait for hours unattended in a restaurant? If we believe time is money, then we need to put value to it," said Sharma, who is a diabetologist and runs Ameyash Healthcare.

Meanwhile, the firm is in an advanced stage of talks with a few Bangalore-based VC firms to raise around Rs 3 crore in seed funding. "We hope to raise it in the next two months," said Srivastava.

Two other mobile-tech ventures offering similar services are Tap&Eat and Snacket--both Delhi-based. While Tap&Eat also caters its service to cinemas and bars besides restaurants, Snacket is more focused on multiplexes. Considering Zeppery is also looking to offer the service at railway stations, it may also compete with the likes of TravelKhana.