Daalchini Technologies raises $4 mn Series A led by Unicorn India Ventures

Other participants in the round include Artha Venture Fund, former Dominos India CEO Ajay Kaul, and VSS Investco (investment vertical of Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma)

Intelligent retail platform Daalchini Technologies has raised $4 million in a Series A round led by Unicorn India Ventures. The other participants in the funding included Artha Venture Fund, former Dominos India CEO Ajay Kaul, and VSS Investco (the investment vertical of Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma).

Founded in 2017 by ex-Paytm colleagues Prerna Kalra and Vidya Bhushan, Daalchini offers affordable snacks and home-style meals through automated kiosks, mobility retail, and smart vending machines. Currently, the Daalchini app has more than 200,000 monthly active users.

“A large part of this funding will be deployed to expand Daalchini’s industry footprint and improve tech capabilities. The Company wants to make its solutions asset-efficient and accessible to 10 million retail points in India and 450+ food and beverage brands. So far, this is the largest round raised by a company in the smart vending segment,” the company said in a statement.

Prerna Kalra, Co-founder & CEO of Daalchini Technologies, said, “We quickly expanded our network to 11 states and 23 cities with 850-plus stores. We will continue leveraging our unique tech and supply chain for fresh and packaged food to reach 50-plus cities.”

Karla added that India has just a few thousand vending machines, while the US or Japan has more than one autonomous store for every 200 people. “We are far from the true potential of this kind of retail.”

Daalchini’s Retail-as-a-Service platform enables consumer product companies to track real-time insights from hundreds of physical stores. The vending machine enables brands and entrepreneurs to reach their customers all over the country within a week.

Ruchi Pincha, Investment Associate, Unicorn India Ventures, said, “The Retail Tech segment in India is going through a massive transition from its traditional physical store form to a digital one, the speed of which has been intensified by the pandemic. In this phase, Daalchini represents the best of both worlds with a ubiquitous physical presence backed by a strong technological framework that prioritizes its customers’ needs and convenience.”