Box8 aims at expanding services to 10 cities by year-end

On-demand food delivery startup, Box8, which offers popular Indian food on its menu, is set to expand services to 10 cities by year-end.
"We have tested our services in our first market Mumbai since January last year, and will expand our operations to 10 cities by the year-end," Box8 co-founder Amit Raj told PTI.
"We are starting operations in Chennai next month, followed by NCR," he said.
The company presently operates in Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru, and controls its entire operations from food preparation to food delivery.
In May, it had raised Rs 21 crore from Mayfield in a first strategic round of investment, and has Kaushal Agarwal of Avendus Capital and Dhiraj Rajaram of Mu Sigma as angel investors, Raj said.

Box8 is primarily funnelling the funds to build a robust technology platform and execute its expansion plans, he said.

The company is also looking to double the number of employees.
It presently has a core team of 45 employees which it is expecting to double over the next two to three months.
Our employee count is about 500, including delivery staff in Mumbai. We will increase that as well by the year end, and will scale up to at least 600 employees in every city in the coming year, Raj said.
The company clocks about 2,500 orders a day, and is targeting to cater for 10,000 orders by the year-end, he added.

"On a ticket size (average order value per head) of Rs 250 we make a gross margin of about 60 per cent," he said, speaking about the revenue model.
Box8 started as a Mexican-only quick service restaurant called Poncho in 2011. In 2012, the company refreshed its menu to offer Indian food, and re-branded to Box8.
It competes with other food technology companies like Bengaluru-based Spoonjoy and Faasos, among others.