Artha Venture Fund backs food tech startup Daalchini

Delhi-based food-tech startup Daalchini Technologies has raised $500,000 (Rs 3.50 crore at current exchange rate) in a seed round, led by early stage venture capital firm Artha Venture Fund.

Daalchini Technologies will use the funds to expand product range, improve logistics, strengthen brand identity and recruit a strong management team, according to a statement issued by the startup today.

Daalchini is a digital vending machine company that provides healthy, affordable, home-cooked meals to corporate employees at the click of a button, bridging the gap of supply and demand unaddressed by food delivery apps and tiffin services. 

Their products can be ordered through a mobile app or on the digital screen on the vending machine.

Daalchini was launched in 2017 by former Paytm employees Prerna Kalra and Vidya Bhushan. While Kalra is an IMT Ghaziabad alumnus and the former product head of Paytm, Bhushan is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Ahmedabad and former product manager at Paytm. Bhushan was also part of the core team that launched Reliance Jio operations in Mumbai.

Daalchini now has 70 kiosks across Delhi-NCR, serving approximately 3000 meals a daily and catering to 40-plus clients including Paytm, Snapdeal, OYO and Ernst & Young. They have more than 10 home-cooked meal vendors and established brands like Saffola, Nutty Gritty, Raw Pressery, Sattviko and M&M.

Daalchini is planning to expand to 1,600 operational kiosks by 2021, and are also working on technology advancements like multi-order and multi-payment options.

"A lot of our partners don’t only cook for money but have a story to tell,” Kalra said. “We at Daalchini equip them with ‘Reach, Revenue and Recognition’. For corporate employees, we are solving the 40 minutes at Rs 40 problem by providing instantly available healthy quick bites."

Developments in the segment:

• July 2019: Indonesia’s Go-Jek gets on board as the latest investor in cloud kitchen Rebel Foods.
• June 2019: Food-tech unicorn Swiggy started offering consumers the option of ordering home-cooked meals via a service called Swiggy Daily.
• May 2019: Ola-owned Foodpanda pivots to cloud kitchens.
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