This start-up is redefining tiffin services with vending machines

While working at Paytm, Prerna Kalra barely had time to cook breakfast or lunch and found herself craving fresh homemade food at the office. Food delivery got tiresome, expensive and never matched her schedule between meetings.

During a visit to China, she came across multiple vending machines that dispensed fresh food items, from fruits to momos and more. Immediately the idea clicked and the food tech start-up Daalchini was born.

The company, founded by Kalra and Vidya Bhushan, was launched in 2018. The Noida-headquartered tech start-up has raised Rs 3.5 crore in the seed round, led by Artha Venture Fund (AVF). Few angel investors like Amit Lakhoitia (ex-Paytm, ex-Tokopedia), Anand Ladsariya (MD, Everest Flavours) also participated.

“Growth in dual-income households is creating a pain-point in the availability of quality, affordable food. Daalchini solves this problem with an innovative solution that could become a game-changer in this space,” says Anirudh Damani, managing partner, AVF.

Daalchini bridges the gaps between home-based cooks or tiffin-service and customers at offices, hospitals, metro stations, etc, through its physical marketplace of self-service kiosks (IoT-based vending machines). It aims at providing Indian breads, home-cooked dishes, snacks and condiments accessible to its customers via vending machines with unique heating-zone. Its products can be ordered through an app or on the digital screen on the vending machine itself.  

“We found that despite having over 3,500 home-tiffin services, homemade food is not instantly available in Delhi/NCR because the tiffin vendors lack the logistics to cater to the large demand,” she says.

Their lack of affordable distribution channels doubles the final cost for the end customer, Kalra says.  “While the customer is willing to pay this additional cost for food ordered from a restaurant on a special occasion, they are unwilling to do so for meals to meet their daily nutrition requirements.  This incentivised us to make Daalchini Vending Machines the new distribution channel for meal services,” she says.

The firm sees an opportunity in the Indian food & beverage market, which was pegged at $95 billion in 2018 and expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.1 per cent to touch $159.1 billion in 2023.

The company is servicing more than 4,000 orders per day and more than 25 per cent of its customers do over 12 transactions in a month on its kiosk. It has a presence in offices, co-working spaces, IT parks, hospitals, hostels, and co-living spaces. It is providing services to some of the big names like EY, Paytm, Fortis, OYO, Lemon Tree, and Genpact.

“Our revenue comes from the commission on sales. With more and more vending machines, upcoming brands do see the value in launching their products via Daalchini’s Phygital  (physical plus digital) channel, thus providing an additional revenue stream to monetise the digital and physical real estate,” says the co-founder. Daalchini in FY19 had gross merchandise volume worth Rs 1 crore. It plans to use the fresh funds to strengthen its technology and logistics network and build a stronger team.