Gurgaon Based Food Delivery Startup BiteClub Stops Operations

Gurgaon-based online marketplace for chefs prepared meals, BiteClub, has halted its operations.

Founder Prateek Agarwal, told Inc42, “We are on a temporary halt. While scaling up we faced certain problems repeatedly. So we thought it is better to take a step back, resolve all the problems and then start with the operations again.”

Founded in November 2014 by Prateek Agarwal, Aushim Krishan and Siddharth Sharma was a marketplace to connect chefs and consumers. It had a daily changing menu that customers can order from via their mobile or the web app. The food is prepared by a curated community of home chefs, amateur chefs, and professional chefs.

Prior to this, in December 2015, BiteClub raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A round of funding from growX ventures. Besides, The Phoenix Fund via Enablers and existing investors Powai Lake Ventures also participated in this round.

Before that, in March 2015, it raised INR 3 Cr. funding from Powai Lake Ventures and angels including Aneesh Reddy (Capillary Technologies), Ashish Kashyap(Goibibo Group) and Alok Mittal (Canaan Partners).

Talking about future plans, Agarwal said that the startup will stay in the food delivery segment and hopes to return stronger.

This year has proved to be difficult for the sustenance of foodtech startups.

• In January 2016, Zomato shut down its online ordering service in Lucknow, Kochi, Indore and Coimbatore on account of a still nascent market in these cities. The company had launched its online food ordering business in April 2015, and expanded this offering to 14 cities across India
• In March 2016, Bangalore-based online meal service provider iTiffin backed by Robin Uthappa stopped its operations
• In May 2016, Gurgaon-based food-tech startup operating in the daily meals segment, Yumist, stopped its services in Bangalore

While on the other hand, certain startups in the foodtech segment have been able to raise funds. Earlier this month, Twigly raised $600K seed funding. Tracxn Labs, Hyderabad Angels, Kunal Shah (co-founder, FreeCharge), Aditya Verma (co-founder, Makaan.com), Gaurav Bhalotia (Vice-president of Engineering, Flipkart), partners at McKinsey and other angels participated in this funding round of Twigly.