Faaso's to expand footprint across India

Pune-based food technology company Faaso's Food Services is expanding its footprint and plans to open 30-35 fulfillment centres in 15 cities like Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Indore and Delhi NCR. The company plans to open up 200 stores by end of FY16.

Sequoia Capital backed Faaso's recently secured a $20 million (over Rs 120 crore) funding which was led by Lightbox Ventures. Fasso's will utilise the fund to expand its presence across India by March 2016. The fundraising comprises a $16 million equity investment by Lightbox and Sequoia, and a $4 million debt.

"Integration of latest technology has also helped evolve the business right from collaboration tools to automated processes in order to reduce the requirement of manpower. We launched a mobile app last year in March. We have extensively invested in technology and data analytics in the last two years. This is a part of non-linear growth plan. We expect to break even by March 2018 on revenues of Rs 450 crore. Service restaurant is a huge market and has grown a lot in the last few years, says Jaydeep Barman, co-founder and CEO, Faaso's Food Services.

At present, it sells wraps and biryani from 90 outlets across cities like Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Baroda. Its 60 per cent business comes from wraps. Faasos' has launched its mobile application in March 2014. According to Berman, 70 per cent of its orders now come through the Internet and it processes 50,000 orders a month through its mobile app. The chain also aims to triple its order base from 10,000 to 30,000 per day.

Barman, a former McKinsey and Co executive, had founded Faaso's in 2004 with his batchmate Kallol Banerjee. Both Barman and Kallol are engineering graduates with MBAs from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow and INSEAD.

Apart from Faaso's, several others, including Box8, Goli Vada Pav and Hello Curry are in the market to raise fresh funding. Most of these chains are trying to replicate the McDonald's or Domino's Pizza models with Indian fast food.