With the changing buying pattern of consumers, the food-tech industry is said to be valued at around $15 Bn and is projected to grow 16% year on year to reach $28 Bn by 2018. The associated segment of home delivery, though, is witnessing an even more rapid growth of close to 40%. Industry experts believe that the food and grocery market will continue to attract heavy investments as the Indian market is still at a very nascent stage as compared to international standards.
Another startup that is basking in the glory of hyper local delivery services is Grab. This startup focuses on delivery in restaurants and food Enterprises and has raised $1 Mn from Oliphans Capital and independent investor Haresh Chawla.
Founded by Jignesh Patel, Nishant Vora and Pratish Sanghvi in 2012, Grab (formerly Grab a Grab) is a hyper local delivery service focused on restaurants and food enterprises.
The startup plans to use the infused funds to expand its operations to Pune and others cities. Besides, Grab plans to deploy 800 delivery agents in Pune and enable around 7,000 orders daily across 700 outlets.
It technologically works on similar lines as some of the taxi aggregation services. It allows tracking of delivery agents through its app who try to deliver the product in precise time. It recently also managed to tap into the tiffin delivery segment, which is predominantly run by Mumbai’s famous dabbawallas.
Grab presently has more than 600 delivery agents across Mumbai & Pune who enable a speedy pickup & delivery of orders. It has catered to over 400 enterprises with its express logistics in the past 3 years.
Hyperlocal delivery segment, has been witnessing a lot of activities with players like Grofers, Zopnow, Peppertap, and ecommerce marketplaces.
Recently, ZopNow raised $10 Mn to expand to 15 more cities. Peppertap raised $10 Mn in funding to build a highly-skilled team and expanding to 10 more cities in the country. Grofers had also raised $35 Mn in funding from Tiger Global & Sequoia Capital.
