Hyderabad-based Hello Curry acquires Fire42, aims to own the complete food making, dining and delivery ecosystem
Hyderabad-based on-demand food service Hello Curry, yesterday announced the acquisition of cloud-based mobile-first platform Fire42. Fire42 will bring its cloud-powered software that will help the Hello Curry team with its analytic, marketing and operational tools. It will help track promotions, sales, compare trends and manage programmes. The terms of the deal comprise of both stock and cash.
Raja Bhupati, CEO of Hello Curry mentioned that Fire42's openness to change and innovation played an important role in the deal.
Started in 2014, Hello Curry is currently present in Hyderabad and parts of Bengaluru. According to Raju, as the Hello Curry team plans to grow across the country, they felt the need for a strong in-house technology team. Unlike the other food tech platforms in the space, Hello Curry aims to own the complete food making, dining and delivery ecosystem. For this, technology is crucial, especially with the team's plan of creating a cloud-based home delivery business. Raju says,
For me, innovation is the key of business. This acquisition not only gives us the edge in terms of technology, it takes us a set closer towards being one of the strongest food tech businesses in the country.
Fire42 has been a strong platform for handling over one million orders. The team behind Fire42 includes the CEO and Founder Santosh Achari, a graduate from IIT-BHU, and COO Srinivasan Rangarajulu, an Awarded Chef and Restauranteur from the US. The Fire42 team will be joining the Hello Curry team.
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With companies like Swiggy following a delivery model or organisations like the Yummist roping in renowned chefs, the food tech industry in India is seeing a burst of activity in recent times. Holachef recently received a funding of $3.1 million, and Zomato, apart from expanding aggressively across the globe, has opened a new delivery unit and has acquired MPOS Maple.
The F&B industry in India is said to be growing at a CAGR of 25 percent. The total size of the industry is worth $13.56 billion. Reports also suggest that in the next 10 years, the total food production in itself will double. Some sources also state that from a time period of April 2000 to January 2015, the food business in India has received close to $6215.46 million in terms of foreign investments.
Abhimanyu Maheshwari, recently told YourStory:
F&B is one of the largest markets and yet hasn’t seen much innovation in India until recently. Today’s consumer is tech savvy and demands convenience and quality without having to pay a premium. Add to this the rise of entrepreneurship and access to capital, India is seeing innovation across the board in the food vertical. Whether it’s tech-only startups making dining in/out seamless or food startups deploying technology for improved products or customer experience, it’s all happening out there. This is an exciting time for the space.