Home-cooked meals at your doorstep

“A food app with a difference. Prices are low, the food choices have been curated and the delivery is hassle-free, especially post the first delivery. The start/pause auto order feature for the week makes things so much easier, too. Looking for affordable, everyday food options and want some peace of mind? Then, this is the option for you” — Nirbhay Sen on Google Playstore review.

Sen is talking of TinMen, which provides easy access to home-cooked meals at affordable prices in Hyderabad.

Most people do not enjoy the food they get at their office cafeterias. And, many also migrate for jobs and stay away from home but crave home-cooked food — they do not have access to good, affordable, food on a daily basis. This is the space TinMen is trying the fill. “We are trying to solve this problem by creating an app that lets users order affordable home-made food on a daily basis, from a controlled marketplace of home chefs,” says Mukesh Manda, co-founder.

The start-up was founded in August 2015 by Chaitanya Degala and Manda. Degala is an alumnus of Oxford Said Business School, with stints in CRISIL and Deloitte before starting  Tinmen. Manda, an IIT-Kharagpur graduate,  previously worked with Oracle and Amazon.

TinMen currently serves 10 major areas in Hyderabad — Madhapur, Hitec City, Kondapur, Gachibowli, Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Begumpet, Miyapur, Manikonda and Kukatpally. It is already delivering a little over 30,000 orders a month. “We see this number steadily multiplying over the next six to nine months. Right now, our priority is on scale,” says Manda.

TinMen generates a steady stream of revenue for their home chefs. Thereby, creating earning opportunities for people who love to cook good food but out of the comfort of their homes. “While chefs get most of the (money from) the sales they do on the platform, TinMen takes a fixed per cent commission on each order,” explains Manda. At present, the food supplier has about 80 associated chefs.

This April, TinMen raised an undisclosed amount from MAPE Advisory Group, Sify co-founder R Ramaraj, and Corvus Ventures, which is led by Mahesh Reddy of MAPE Advisory. Lead Angels, which put in an undisclosed amount in January 2016, also took part. Recently, Zomato, the online restaurant guide and food ordering entity, said it had made an undisclosed investment in TinMen. 

The funds would be used for building the team and developing the product. “Zomato and TinMen will work together (initially in Hyderabad, and then the rest of the country) to provide access to better food for more people,” Zomato founder and chief executive Deepinder Goyal said in a blog post.