Food startup Zzungry raises funds from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, others

Bangalore-based food startup Zzungry that offers freshly prepared Indian cuisine has raised a round of seed funding from Silicon Valley-based entrepreneurs Satish Vasudeva, Madhusudhan Jujare and other individual investors. The funds raised will be used for expansion and building revenue channels, it said in a statement.

"At Zzungry, we aim to introduce exotic Indian dishes at an affordable price. With the new investments, we will be setting up new kitchens to expand our footprint in Bengaluru. We will also be using a significant chunk of funds towards ramping up operational efficiency and marketing," said Subash Baliga, co-founder of Zzungry.

Established in 2015 by Baliga, Sandeep Rana and Ashish Kalya, Zzungry offers customers packaged Indian dishes, curated by an in-house chef.

The startup operates through a delivery model and has six operational kitchens in Indira Nagar, BTM Layout, HSR Layout, Marathahalli, Electronics City and Whitefield in Bangalore. The a la carte menu is priced between Rs 195 and Rs 320 and combo meals are priced between Rs 195 and Rs 325. The firm claims to be processing more than 150 orders a day.

The startup will foray into other destinations and will go a step beyond the food delivery model. In the coming months, Zzungry plans to enter retail with a new category of offering and will explore avenues like malls and tech parks to reach out to a larger consumer base.

The food startup segment in India has seen many players shutting down operations as many were me-too firms that struggled to create sustainable business models. Firms such as Frsh.com, iTiffin, Zuper Meal, MealHopper, Zeppery and Bite Club has closed operations.

However, over the last few months, a few food startups have raised funds. Earlier this month, Mumbai-based packaged Yumlane raised nearly Rs 6.6 crore ($1 million) in a seed round of funding led by Flipkart co-founder and CEO Binny Bansal, with participation from People Group founder Anupam Mittal, MakeMyTrip co-founder Sachin Bhatia and Darius Pandole, partner at private equity firm New Silk Route.

Bangalore-based food-tech startup Petoo raised $500,000 in August from existing investors Infosys cofounders S D Shibulal and Kris Gopalakrishnan as well as a clutch of HNIs.

In July, Holachef raised fresh funds worth Rs 13 crore from Kalaari Capital and India Quotient and in June, hyperlocal on-demand logistics startup Roadrunnr acquired food ordering platform TinyOwl and rebranded itself as Runnr, a food ordering and delivery platform.

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