GSF Founder Rajesh Sawhney Enters The $300 Bn Food Industry With His Foodtech Startup InnerChef

Serial entrepreneur and investor Rajesh Sawhney, who is also the founder of GSF Accelerator and Global Superangels Fund, after working with a number of startups through the accelerator program is now all set to take the “Startup Founder” tag. Rajesh has announced the launch of his new venture InnerChef, an online food discovery and delivery platform.

InnerChef: Intersection of two mega global trends: Eating Different and Eating Better

Eating better and different has become a mega global trend. People, now, are ready to try different type of foods, be it Chinese, Thai, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Mexican, or Ethiopian, but on the other side, they have also become conscious about what they eat and hence, they want to eat better. InnerChef has been built on the intersection of these two trends as it provides a platform which lets one try different recipes, cooked at their own homes.

What InnerChef Does For You?

The customer can choose a dish from the available menu and place an order. InnerChef’s team consisting of chefs, prepares exotic sauces and seasonings required to cook that particular dish and then package them to precise measurement along with simple recipe instructions to follow.

The startup, currently offering 16 recipes, within a month, plans to take the number to over 25-30 recipes that will be refreshed on a weekly basis. While the launch menu is primarily western cuisine (Salads, Paninis, Pastas and Specials), InnerChef plans to add oriental and Indian cuisine in the coming weeks.

Started with Gurgaon, the company plans to expand to three metros i.e. Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore in the coming quarter and cover the top 10 Indian cities with multiple kitchens within one year.

The startup will be operational two times a day, i.e. Lunch (11 am till 2 pm) and Dinner (5 pm till 9 pm). Additionally, InnerChef is exploring options to provide on-demand service in the catchment areas.

Presently, customers can order recipe boxes through a mobile responsive website and the startup plans to build a mobile app in the coming time.

The Food Retailing Marketing In India

Food retailing market in India is $300 Bn large and Indian restaurant market is pegged at $50 Bn. The home food delivery market is growing at 40% per annum and is expected to be $10 Bn in size by 2016. While bulk of the business in this industry is in the unorganized sector, the share of the organized sector is increasing rapidly.

With the advent of internet and mobile, the combination of Food + Tech is disrupting old business models and is creating new paradigms. According to recent estimates, over $2.3 Bn have been invested in “Food+Tech” businesses so far, of which $1.2 Bn was in 2014 alone.

“InnerChef’s mission is to provide a new kitchen experience that is in sync with the needs of a “globally-aware” yet “time-poor” consumer,” tells the company.

In his previous roles, before founding GSF, Rajesh Sawhney was also the Founding President of Reliance Entertainment and Founding Architect of Times Internet. Rajesh has founded InnerChef along with Bal – the founder of DiGhent Cafe, Heena Karia Thakkar – a professional chef, Uday Bansal – founder of Skybulls, and Rahul Samat – ex-product manager at Barclay’s.

Last year, during our StartupDash’s Bangalore edition, we came across another startup working on similar lines i.e. Halfteaspoon. Founded by IIT Kharagpur alumni, the startup had done good initially, but due lack of opportunity in this niche space, the founders had decided to shut it down. In USA, BlueApron is also in the similar space.

Let’s hope that InnerChef, with the strong foundation team of experienced folks from the startup ecosystem, are able to take this concept further for the Indian genre.