Hello Curry acquires The First Meal

Quick service restaurant chain Hello Curry Pvt. Ltd has acquired The First Meal, a food and delivery startup which takes pre-orders for customized health food for cash and stock. The acquisition allows Hello Curry to enter the breakfast and meal box segment.

The food tech startup industry has been facing shutdowns. Lack of sustainable growth models in a fragmented market and harder customer acquisition has seen investors shying away too, after the initial euphoria. Hello curry which specializes in Indian food has been positioning itself as a quick delivery, hygienic, and convenient chain. This acquisition is Hello Curry attempt to draw a sustainable revenue model for the long term, even as its 33 outlets in Hyderabad, Pune, and Bengaluru remain profitable.

The company is in the process of raising $2-3 Million to take care of the regular growth plan in India and would separately raise funds for overseas expansion in a few months. The First Meal has a subscription platform and through their meal box concept it provides nutritious and consciously prepared food. Subscriptions can be profitable as the business as the business is predictable and Hello Curry would only leverage the existing kitchens and infrastructure it has to reach the subscription customers.

Through First Meal, the company aims to sell 5,000 meals every day, within the next six months. Currently First Meal serves five types of diet balanced breakfast items and daily changing nutritious lunches, tapping around 10,000 boxes a month, with 89% customer retention rate.

Grofers to acquire SpoonJoy

Hyperlocal delivery startup Grofers is in talks to buy Bengaluru based SpoonJoy, as the food ordering app struggles to raise money from new and existing investors. Grofers, run by Locodel Solutions Pvt. Ltd, is expected to sign a acqui-hire deal with SpoonJoy. Operations of SpoonJoy will be shut down once the deal is done.

As investor interest starts to ebb in the crowded food ordering sector, the market is expected to see more such consolidation or strategic investments. Since the start of the year, investors have pumped $150 Million into 20 food ordering startups. The acquisition of SpoonJoy is expected to largely to be a stock deal with some component of cash being involved.

About 40 people from SpoonJoy are expected to join Grofers in the tech and operations departments. SpoonJoy was launched in July 2014 by IIT graduates. The company is backed by Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. In May, the company raised $1 Million in a Series A funding from SAIF Partners.

There are early signs of a slowdown and startups in overcrowded sectors will either fail to get higher valuations in their next rounds or not find fresh funds, leading to cost cuts and consolidation over the next one year. However, Food tech companies will not disappear, given the large markets for home deliveries in large cities.

Dineout acquires inResto Service

Hotel Reservation Platform Dineout has acquired Bengaluru based inResto Service Pvt. Ltd. Dineout, part of Times Internet Ltd was founded in 2012. It has listings of over 20,000 restaurants and operates in seven Indian cities. Dineout has raised an undisclosed amount in funding so far in January 2014.

Food tech companies have been adding new services to consolidate its market share in the fast growing space. Deepinder Goyal founded Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd. launched services to reserves a table, book cabs and make payments on its app as well. InResto has so far seated over 1 Million restaurant diners in three cities in the six months since its launch.

The acquisition will ensure that restaurants get one dashboard to manage different functions like reservation, home delivery, takeaways, customer feedback and mobile payments and other restaurant management function. Post the acquisition the whole team at inResto will join Dineout in Bengaluru.

In coming months, Dineout is planning to launch a developer platform that will enable any service across the food tech ecosystem to integrate with them to reach a wider set of restaurants. 

Monocept Acquires GetMeFood

Monocept, a Hyderabad based Technology Company focused on developing large scale enterprises cloud, mobile and web solutions, has acquired online food ordering startup GetMeFood for an undisclosed amount. GetMeFood is also based in Hyderabad.

GetMeFood has hyper-local delivery system through which food is delivered from over 250 restaurants across the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad by more than 50 delivery boys. Monocept had in late 2014 launched DinerKonnect, a customer engagement and rewards organizer tool for the restaurant and hospitality industry.

GetMeFood will now help the restaurants in growing their business in both dine-in and online ordering space. In the near future, the company has plans to activate multi-channel order management system through its mobile applications for customers, restaurants and its delivery network. The company plans to partner with more than 1,500 restaurants in the next two months. Currently, it is active in 40 neighborhoods in Hyderabad and eight neighborhoods in Secunderabad. Company will also expand their base into other cities.