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Exclusive: Snapdeal's Chandrasekaran backs food-tech startup InnerChef

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Anand Chandrasekaran, Snapdeal's chief product officer, has made an undisclosed angel investment in food-tech startup InnerChef, sources said.

InnerChef Pvt Ltd, the ready-to-cook meals delivery venture floated by GSF Accelerator's Rajesh Sawhney, will use the money raised to expand its footprint and launch new kitchens across Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.

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Sawhney confirmed the development without divulging specific details.

Launched in April, InnerChef delivers on-demand meal boxes to its customers. The Gurgaon-based company's model, an Indian adaptation of the US-based Blue Apron, is to deliver pre-cooked/sliced food with all necessary ingredients and the recipe, packed in a kit. The customer has to do the final preparation of the meal.

The company recently inducted iProf Learning Solutions' CTO Sanjeev Singhal as its new co-founder and CTO. In September, InnerChef raised Rs 11 crore ($1.6 million) in pre-Series A funding from Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Redbus co-founder Phanindra Sama, Shaadi.com's Anupam Mittal and other tech investors.

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Chandraskeran had joined Snapdeal (run by Jasper Infotech Pvt Ltd) in June after a 11-month stint with Bharti Airtel as chief product officer. As an angel investor, Chandrasekaran has put money in Los Angeles-based audio accessories company Audeze, hyperlocal medicine and healthcare products delivery startup Pluss, freight platform FreightTiger and HD-live streaming platform Instalively.

Startups in the Indian food-tech space either offer an ordering/delivery platform from restaurants (Foodpanda, TinyOwl, Zomato, Boibanit and others) or run their own kitchens/cafes (Box8, Dropkaffe, Frsh.com and others).

Companies such as MealHopper, Bite Club, Yumist and SpoonJoy connect consumers to independent chefs or offer food ordering from in-house kitchens. Ventures such as InnerChef and iChef offer a platform for ready-to-cook products.

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The online food ordering business in India is estimated to be worth Rs 5,000-6,000 crore, growing at about 30 per cent month-on-month, according to a report by India Brand Equity Foundation. However, this segment is transaction-driven and margins are wafer thin.

It has been a year of mixed fortunes for the food-tech startups. A few startups have shut shop or have downsized operations.

According to some estimates, about half of the food-tech firms operating in India started in the past year. As per VCCEdge, 19 food-tech startups have raised about $160 million in venture capital funding so far in 2015. Only five companies managed to raise money twice.

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