On-demand chef hiring platform Cookifi gets seed funding from FreeCharge's Kunal Shah, others

Bangalore-based Commercio Connectivity Pvt. Ltd, which runs online chef and cook hiring platform Cookifi, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from investors led by Kunal Shah, chairman of FreeCharge, and Aneesh Reddy, co-founder and CEO of Capillary Technologies.

Other investors include Tracxn Labs, Venkat Tadanki, CEO of Secova, Krishna Mehra, co-founder of Capillary Technologies, and Amit Rathore, founder and CEO of Quintype. The investment was facilitated through TracxnSyndicate, the managed investment arm of Tracxnlabs.

The funds will be used to augment its technology platform and expand its services across India, a company statement said.

"We're convinced by Cookifi's mission to organise a large addressable market in the unorganised sector. We see a growing appetite for an on-demand chef service as India's millennials work longer hours than the previous generation, and they don't have the time or inclination to cook an elaborate meal," said Neha Singh, co-founder of Tracxn.

Founded in June 2015 by Ajay Modani, Harsh Singla and Prachi Malu, Cookifi provides chef and cooks on-demand for parties, get-togethers and festive occasions. It also caters to homemakers, working professionals and big families who want a cook on demand. Cookifi uses an advanced chef allocation algorithm using variables such as spice preferences, cuisine preferences to help customers get the kind of cook they want with minimum effort.

Currently operational in Bangalore, the startup has served 3,500 customers till now.

"Keeping current traction in mind, we estimate on an average a customer will use Cookifi on-demand three times a month and Cookifi experience (specialty chefs) once in a month. With this, we estimate the market size to be $20.6 billion in the top six cities of India," said Harsh Singla, co-founder, Cookifi.

An IIT Kharagpur alumni, Modani is co-founder and former COO of Capillary Technologies. An MBA alumni from IIM Indore, Singla led the account management vertical at Capillary Technologies and has earlier worked at ITC Infotech. An MBA in human resources, Malu was earlier with Azim Premji Foundation and Walmart Labs.

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