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Delhi-based Startup TravelKhana has raised its Pre-Series A round of funding led by Astarc Ventures and some high net worth individuals. This funding is a part of $10Mn Series A round that company is raising.
TravelKhana is an online meal-booking platform for train passengers. It connects the train passenger to the food caterers in Indian railway network. Earlier, it had raised angel funds for about $2 Mn from Google’s Rajan Anandan, Alok Mittal and more.
The startup is founded by Pushpinder Singh in 2012, and as reported, for the fiscal 2014-15, its annual revenue were around $15 Mn. Currently, it caters more than 3,000 passengers every day. It is present in 150 stations and plans to add more 250 stations in next one year.
Astarc Ventures is investment arm of Mumbai-based automotive solutions Astarc Group. Starting with a corpus of $2 Mn, it plans to invest in 12-13 firms in couple of years. The areas of investment identified are mobile payments, digital healthcare, consumer internet, internet of things, digital communication, 3 D printing, data analytics areas and more. It has also invested $1 Mn in Hyderabad-based Online Home Décor firm Renderlogy.
According to Salil Musale, co-founder of Astarc Ventures, they look at multiple aspects before including the size and attractiveness of the market opportunity and leadership.
LetsVenture facilitated the funding round. It is a platform for connecting startups that are looking to raise seed/angel money with angel and early–stage investors.
According to the data provided in Indian Railways, during 2013-14, it carried 839.7 Mn passengers as against 842.1 Mn in 2012-13. There are over 7112 stations and over 8000 coaches. This is a huge market opportunity, with other players providing similar service like YatraChef, Travelthali, Khanaonline, Travelerfood and TravelZiaka.
Related: TravelKhana – Takes Care Of Your Meals While Traveling!
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