Exclusive: Food delivery startup Zapdel gets more angel funding

Food ordering marketplace Boibanit will rebrand itself to Zapdel and has raised an undisclosed amount of money in its second round of angel funding.

Zapdel will use the funds raised from a set of Delhi-based affluent individuals to increase its market share in the 10 cities where it operates, co-founder Arunabh Parihar told Techcircle.in. He didn't disclose the investors' names.

"We are aiming to capture 30-40% share of the food delivery business in each city we are present in," said Parihar.

The startup operates in Tier II cities such as Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Noida and Agra.

The investment round comes after Vadodara-based Boiban Business Pvt Ltd, which operates Zapdel, raised $150,000 in angel funding from R Kumar Textile Group's Varun Ahuja and investment banker Anubhav Verma in November last year.

The startup was founded by Abhiudaya Parihar, Arunabh Parihar, Ram Manohar Rai, Rohit Gupta and Sudhir Prakash.

Before this venture, Abhiudaya worked as an R&D engineer at Toyo Springs while Arunabh and Rai were employed with Indian Oil Corp. Gupta worked at Housing.com while Prakash is an alumnus of NIT, Allahabad.

In the food delivery segment, FreshMenu, an online food-tech venture that delivers meals prepared at its kitchens, raised $17 million (around Rs 110 crore) in Series B funding led by Zodius Technology Fund two months ago.

However, several food-tech startups are still reeling under financial pressure to control costs and sustain investor interest; some have shut shop, tweaked their businesses, paused operations or reduced their staff count.

In December, Bangalore-based Eatlo Tech Solutions Pvt Ltd, which runs food delivery startup Eatlo, closed its operations five months after it raised angel funding from Powai Lake Ventures, Abhishek Goyal of Tracxn Labs and equity crowdfunding platform Globevestor. Also, mobile-only food ordering startup TapCibo Online Solutions Pvt Ltd, which operated under the brand Dazo, last year decided to shut shop as the Bangalore-based company completed a year of operations.

The online food ordering business in India is estimated at Rs 5,000-6,000 crore, growing about 30% month-on-month, according to a report by India Brand Equity Foundation. The sector includes aggregators, food-ordering platforms, delivery-only players, proprietary meal sellers and cloud kitchens.