MUMBAI: Prasoon Gupta, Manish Goyal, Badal
Goel — all graduates from the Indian Institutes
of Technology, all with high-paying corporate
jobs. Then they gave it all up to get into the
food business, setting up individual ventures
that form part of the burgeoning $48 billion
food service business in India.
In February, IIT Roorkee graduate Gupta quit
his five-year-old venture Tech Buddy
Consulting and founded a new eating concept
in Delhi that caters to more than 300 people
daily. Sattviko is inspired by the sattvik way of
life that emphasises purity and serves cuisine
from India and across the world, such as
Mexican, Italian and American that conforms
to its rules, such as no onions or garlic. Gupta
has roped in a chef formerly with the Taj
Group who's constantly dreaming up new
dishes for the menu.
"While the initial investment in setting the
company, its assets and hiring people is high,
we are looking at becoming a Rs 100-crore
chain within the next two years of operations,"
said Gupta.
The two Sattviko outlets in Delhi generate daily
overall business of Rs 35,000, he said. The
company is in talks with venture capitalists to
raise Rs 15-20 crore which will be utilised for
domestic and overseas expansion in Dubai, the
US and the UK in the next six months.
FRSH, based in the capital and started by an
alumnus of IIT Delhi, serves corporate clients
in Gurgaon looking for healthy food — fresh
salads, sandwiches and health juices.
"Right now, FRSH serves corporate offices in
Gurgaon and later we will start the service
even for metro stations, schools and
apartment complexes as we are targeting high
density areas," said founder Badal Goel.
The company has so far invested almost Rs 50
lakh in setting up a centralised kitchen, besides
technology and manpower. Several tech grads
from the IITs and other reputed schools have,
in the last few months, been attracted to the
food business and started their own outlets
and sites.
"It has demonstrated the potential to become
a sunrise sector and has seen interest from
private equity firms as well," said Ankur Bisen,
vice-president, retail, Technopak Advisors.
According to Technopak, the food service
market is projected to grow to $92 billion by
2020 at a compounded annual growth rate of
10%. These IIT graduates are bringing technical
expertise and systems from previous corporate
jobs to the food business. All these
entrepreneurs have set up centralised kitchens
to maintain quality and eliminate wastage.
Last November, IIT Bombay graduate Manish
Goyal quit a management consulting job and
founded Foodies Compass, an online platform
that solves the 'what to eat?' dilemma.
"As a backpacker and traveller, there was
always this problem of what to order due to
lack of visual and credible sources. So, we
introduced this website and app where people
can see visuals of food before they order,"
said Goyal. Foodies Compass, which provides
pictorial menus of more than 150 restaurants
in Gurgaon, plans to expand to Mumbai, Delhi,
Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and
Ahmedabad in the next one year.
There are scores of others who have made
food their business. Pushpinder Singh, who has
a masters in computer science from BITS Pilani
and a BTech from IIT, has launched
Travelkhana, which delivers food to railway
passengers and has funding from Google India
head Rajan Anandan. Chaayos, an NCRbased
chai cafe which serves more than 25 varieties
of tea, competes with established coffee
outlets.
"There is a high demand for chai and because
our products are priced lower, we see higher
footfall and revenue than other major coffee
chains like CCD (Cafe Coffee Day), Barista, etc,"
said Nitin Saluja, founder of Chaayos. An IIT
Bombay graduate, Saluja opened Chaayos in
2012 after discovering a passion for tea.
Several private equity firms and venture
capitalists have pumped money into the food
business, although their experience in the
sector has been mixed.
The Indian Angel Network, a large group of
angel investors, has invested in Poncho, a
Mumbai-headquartered quick service
restaurant (QSR) chain that serves Mexican
food. Sequoia Capital has invested in the
Punebased fast-food company Faaso's, which
serves wraps. Helion Ventures and Footprint
Ventures have invested in Mast Kalandar, a
chain that serves north Indian vegetarian food.
According to Bisen of Technopak, given that
Indians are traveling widely and exposure to
global cuisines is increasing, the food business
is set to expand.
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