Calsoft founder Sharmila Bhide launches food aggregator portal HausKhaas

The food-based portal intends to provide authentic cooked-food from renowned chefs and home-makers who have expertise in regional cooking

Sharmila Bhide, co-founder and CFO of Pune-based Calsoft is all set to take her second debut as an entrepreneur.

Bhide who co-founded Calsoft in 1998 today announced the launch of HausKhaas.com that offers exotic dishes from different regions of India and few international cuisines.

The food-based portal, unlike others in the category, intends to provide authentic cooked-food from renowned chefs and home-makers who have expertise in regional cooking.

"I believe food is something that brings people together. More than 100 people have shown interest to join the platform as HausChefs. However, HausKhaas believes in carefully curating them and their menus before adding them on. Currently the number of active HausChefs is about 25-30 at any given point in time," said Bhide.

For instance, Kamla Patil, 65-year-old housemaker is a cooking expert and has expertise in cooking Kolhapuri non-veg recepies. Being a senior citizen and limited access to internet, she can't share her dishes with others on commercial basis. But, today she is HausChef on HausKhaas.com.

Bhide added, "We are currently serving 12-15 regional Indian cuisines and a similar number of international ones. As we curate more and more HausChefs, we obviously aim to cover the entire spectrum on Indian and International regional delicacies. Our mission is to bring the dishes that are unique and one-of-a-kind. Like a Jackfruit biryani, or a Thai chicken loaf or a mutton Rann that is cooked for more than three hours to allow the flesh to just melt off the bone."

The platform which started on a pilot basis in January this year and is currently limited to Pune city. In the next one year it has plans to expand it in selected cities across India. Bhide has invested Rs 2 crore for this venture in her personal capacity.

Explaining how different the platform is from other startups in the similar space, She said, "HausKhaas understands and love food, and often enjoy cooking ourselves, We can understand the HausChefs better and can connect with them at a very fundamental level. This I believe is our biggest differentiator from other startups in the similar space. Also, we are not offering any discounts on our products. Our venture is driven by passion for food, love for cooking and is guided by experience and ability to build and run sustainable business models."