Fingerlix Looks For Fresh Funding To Support Expansion Plans

Mumbai-headquartered foodtech startup Fingerlix is now looking to add up to its capital with a fresh infusion from existing investors.

According to Fingerlix’s ministry of corporate affairs filings accessed by Inc42, the company passed a board resolution on March 16 to issue 2,85,362 Series C shares at a nominal value of INR 20 with a premium of INR 481.08 per share worth INR 14.29 Cr.

The investments are coming from existing investor Swiggy, Accel Partners, Zephyr Peacock, and RB Investments. Further, Fingerlix also appointed Swiggy cofounder and CEO Sriharsha Majety from director to nominee director.

Fingerlix was founded in October 2015 by Shripad Nadkarni, Shree Bharambe, Abhijit Berde and Varun Khanna. It serves pre-cooked and frozen food. It provides fresh ‘almost-ready’ food products such as batters, mixes, curries, dals, parathas and ‘fully-ready’ accompaniments to go with them.

With a growing presence in the top six metros, Fingerlix aims to be an integral part of the everyday tasty dining experience in Indian homes. However, the company looks to be going through a tough time considering the lack of activity on social media platforms in recent weeks.

It is also not currently available on ecommerce platforms like Amazon and BigBasket. The company’s website is also not working currently and not accepting orders.

Of course, the challenges aren’t just for Fingerlix but the overall FMCG segment, where the lockdown has put restrictions on production and supply at the time of peak demand. After initial hurdles, a few FMCG companies have received approvals for some of their facilities and were in the process of resuming production at limited capacities. But considering the focus of government on only essentials, several FMCG products are facing difficulties in getting back into the supply chain.

India is seeing growth in the food and beverage industry as the market is expected to reach $46 Bn by 2020. According to “India Ready-To-Cook Market Outlook, 2021”, the total market for ready-to-cook is growing with a CAGR of 19.60% from last five years. It is projected to reach $754.82 Mn by the end of 2022.

According to DataLabs by Inc42, the total online food delivery users in Indian stood at more than 182 Mn as of 2019. The pace at which new users are coming on the food delivery platform is estimated at 12%. Overall, India’s foodtech market was expected to grow to $5 Bn in 2019, and by 2023, it is expected to cross $15 Bn.