FreshMenu’s FY18 Loss Widens 3.8% As Advertising, Employee Costs Rise

Bengaluru-based foodtech startup Foodvista India Private Limited, which runs FreshMenu, reported a jump of 62% in its revenue for the financial year ending March 31, 2018 reaching $17.73 Mn (INR 123.72 Cr) from $10.89 Mn (INR 76 Cr) in the previous year.

According to the company filings accessed via Tofler, a business intelligence platform for India, FreshMenu’s loss widened to $6.29 Mn (INR 43.89 Cr) in FY18, an increase of 3.8% compared to $6 Mn (INR 42.28 Cr) in the financial year 2017.

The expenses for the year increased due to increased spending on employee and advertising:

• FreshMenu’s employee benefits expenses increased by 33.3% from $4.73 Mn (INR 33 Cr) in FY17 to $6.3 Mn (INR 44 Cr) in FY18
• The company also increased its advertising promotional expenses by 6.88% reaching $2.2 Mn (INR 15.38 Cr) from $2.06 Mn (INR 14.39 Cr) in FY17

Founded in 2014 by Rashmi Daga, FreshMenu offers meal kit delivery service from its 35 cloud kitchens across Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi NCR. It claims to receive 13K orders every day with an average order value of $5 (INR 325), which, incidentally, is close to foodtech unicorn Swiggy’s average order value of $5.39(INR 350).

The company is said to be looking for fresh funds of nearly $75 Mn as part of its Series C fundraise. With this, the company is looking to raise its valuation to $250 Mn.

FreshMenu had recently become a target of social media uproar after data breach-tracker HaveIBeenPwned.com (HIBP) revealed about a breach in the systems of FreshMenu in July 2016 had exposed personal data, including the names, email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses, and order histories of its customer.

The company had recently clarified that the company took immediate action and worked with AppSecure and Anand Prakash, India’s best-known white hat hacker, “to audit our systems and help us make our system’s security robust.”

An April 2017 report by Netscribes expects online food delivery market in India to grow by 34-36% over 2015 to 2020. Some of the major players that dominate the industry include Foodpanda (acquired by Ola), Swiggy, and Zomato.

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