Check out your dishes before ordering

If you go to a restaurant and find the videos of dishes in the menu, instead of their printed description, don't be surprised. For, a start-up called IdeaChakki provides digital video menu for restaurants. The firm's app called 'dash' provides 15-second videos of the dishes to help customers get a better idea of the food being ordered. The videos also show how the food is cooked.

Last week, the start-up received an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Tata Sons' Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata. It has also partnered with Enablers for the Series-A round.

Founded in 2013 by three former executives of NDTV, Monica Narula, Noopur Tiwari and Gunjan Mehrish, the start-up generates revenue by charging the restaurants, depending on the subscription of the number of dishes they make. It also charges a licensing fee from restaurants if they use the videos for marketing and promotion purposes.

"We are the world's first video-based foodtech company to introduce such a concept, which changes the face of hospitality world and lifestyle of users," says Mehrish.

The app is being used by ITC and standalone brands such as Ritu Dalmia's restaurants - Depot29 and Artusi.

The start-up has a 13-member strong team. Currently, it is operational in six restaurants in the National Capital Region; it aims to reach 35-40 restaurants by the end of this year. The company is also in the process of setting up an office in Paris.