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    Plating up solution for dreaded cafeteria queues

    Synopsis

    Hungerbox has raised $22.4 million in funding. With cafeterias going strong, the firm is now targeting universities and food courts at tech parks. “We are in talks with the top three universities in the country. We are targeting 1 billion orders by March and 1.5 billion by December,” Sandipan Mitra, founder of Hungerbox, said.

    Mitra Hungerbox
    Sandipan Mitra worked at a food joint before joining Wipro as a software engineer. His next role was the marketing lead at Yahoo.
    (This story originally appeared in on Jan 05, 2020)
    Sandipan Mitra’s stints in various companies equipped him with the skills and spark you require to start up, not once but twice.

    His first venture, Hungryzone.com, was acquired by Justeat, which was snapped up by Foodpanda in 2015. A year later, he founded Hungerbox, which manages cafeterias. Foodtech is clearly where he feels at home.

    A young Mitra, in fact, worked at a food joint before joining Wipro as a software engineer. His next role was the marketing lead at Yahoo.

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    “I didn’t plan to take up these roles; they were purely coincidental. They helped me get the experience needed in foodtech. But I stayed clear of B2C foodtech as the segment is crowded,” he said.

    Hungerbox has partnered with 540 cafes and 126 institutions in 18 cities, dealing with about half a million food orders a day. “There are four stakeholders here: the institution which owns the cafeteria, employees, vendors and the aggregator, which is us,” he said. Through an app, employees can see the position of the cafeteria — what food and vendors are available — and order. Institutions are provided with a real-time dashboard on the movement of food packages and updates on ratings and reviews.

    “Even when the number of orders is high, one can avoid queues at the counter with the option of placing orders in advance and paying online,” Mitra said. Users can also choose QR code authentication.

    Getting corporates on board as customers was a challenge for Hungerbox. Initially, many didn’t see any potential in the idea and felt their employees might not like it.

    “It took us seven months just to sign up our first client. For three months thereafter, our entire company would be at the cafeteria to make sure things were smooth,” Mitra said. “Eventually, we gained approval and acceptance.”

    Investors also took notice. Hungerbox has raised $22.4 million in funding. With cafeterias going strong, the firm is now targeting universities and food courts at tech parks. “We are in talks with the top three universities in the country. We are targeting 1 billion orders by March and 1.5 billion by December,” he said, adding expanding internationally by year end was also on the cards.

    Its long-term goals include an IPO.
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