Delhi-based Rocketfood aims to deliver ‘maa-ke-haath-ka-khana’ in 30 minutes
Sitting in Delhi and longing for maa ke haath ka khana? You could get it delivered at your doorstep in the next 30 minutes.
A seven-month old venture, the two-member core team at Noida-based Rocketfood aims to change the scenario and cater to everyone’s needs, be it a single person ordering food or a group of friends or family placing orders in bulk.
Attractive, hygienic packaging is a key feature of Rocketfood’s online food chain, which looks at North Indian recipes. The parcel is packaged in pizza boxes to ensure zero spillage of food (particularly for gravy recipes). Modest pricing is yet another advantage at Rocketfood. The option of a single serving available (Rs 50 onwards) gives customers a happy deal even on a stringent budget.
A low kitchen set-up cost, low rentals and a quick turnaround time has benefited the team in a big way, placing them a notch ahead of their competitors. Eatlo is another platform in a similar space. With its kitchen in Bengaluru, they do a decent 550+ lunch orders every day. Similarly, SpoonJoy.com claims to have a healthy selection of sprouts, a combination of lunch and snacks on a weekly subscription basis for users, and so does FreshMenu and others. “Our food is not the typical greasy restaurant food. It is high both on quality and taste despite being made with optimum oil and spices,” says Rocketfood Founder Abhineet Kumar, stating it to be their USP.
A different model
The reason the founders zeroed in on an internet-first aggregator over a traditional restaurant model is to make it scalable in quick time. Having worked with Mast Kalandar earlier, Abhineet had seen from close quarters the fallouts of not being able to maintain the initial growth momentum. He was wary of the challenges in a food startup.
With their model, one which disrupted the food scene, these problems were solved and the business model could be scaled in quick time.
Abhineet founded the food chain along with mechanical engineer friend Anurag Singh. “While staying away at college, it had dawned on me that there wasn’t any good food delivery service – something which delivered consistently in terms of product and service,” says Abhineet.
It was to overcome the problem of late deliveries, inconvenient packaging, greasy food and expensive menus that the duo started working on this idea in July 2014, and set up their first kitchen in Indirapuram in August, followed by a kitchen-launch in Noida three months ago.
Trick to stick to the 30-minute deadline
When orders come through the Rocketfood app, the kitchen team doesn’t cook them on a first-come-first-serve basis. Instead, the technology they use prioritizes the orders based on what other orders are coming in to ensure the delivery team is travelling in the most efficient route.
When the Rocketfood team is on the delivery route, it would be tracked all the way to evaluate the amount of time they spend on the bike, the duration of the journey and the amount of time it takes to deliver it to that location. “Our app will then process this information and inform the delivery team about future routes,” says Abhineet.
Money matters
With one crore revenue generated in the first seven months of setting up the venture, the Rocketfood team currently delivers in two cities – Noida and Ghaziabad. They have a lot of corporate partnerships in place, and, going forward, they expect enterprise sales to make a large share of the company’s revenues.
A bootstrapped company, the investment till date is to the tune of Rs 60 lakh. Being inundated with food delivery requests from Gurgaon and South Delhi markets, they are looking forward to expand in the next few months.
Expansion plans
With 100-odd loyal customers and a host of new ones each day, Rocketfood is now successfully shipping around 7,500 meals every month. Very soon, they have plans to enter the Gurgaon market, which, given its sheer market size, is certain to generate good business for the young entrepreneurs.
