Cousin duo’s start up to provide traditional breakfast options for working professionals
What if you could eat Bihar’s litti chokha, Indore’s masala poha or Delhi’s kachori sabzi at the comfort of your home? And what if the ingredients for these dishes are sourced from their place of origin? Salivating yet?
Working on this concept is online food and snack delivering company EatOnGo, dedicated to provide filling breakfast and brunch options to the busy working professionals in Bengaluru.
Co-founded in February 2015, for cousins Udit Saran and Taru Raaj Agarwal the desire to start their own business finally materialised. Having a background in the food industry, Udit worked with Delmonte, followed by General Mills and Pillsbury.Taru, on the other hand, had previously worked with Myntra and Capillary Technologies.
While, staying together and working in Bengaluru, they were hit by the realisation of how life had changed for them, seeing how they had to run to office on an empty stomach, most days. Thus, EatonGo happened.
EatOnGo journey
Bootstrapped, EatOnGo raised seed round funding from friends and family in the initial stages. Currently, the venture has been seed funded by industry veterans like Rajesh Sawhney, of GSF Accelerators and Varun Jhawar and Nipun Katiyal of Chefbasket.
Starting off with eight people in February, the team has expanded to 30 individuals. This includes an active network of 12 delivery boys as well as a kitchen staff of 12. Breaking even in their first month of operation, the venture has grown from serving 100-150 orders per week to delivering 2,500 orders per week, witnessing an average growth rate of 50 per cent month on month. Today, the venture holds an active customer base of over 3000, out of which 60 per cent is repetitive. Moreover, the company registers an average run rate of approximately eight lakhs in revenue.
By the end of August, the startup aims to close their first round of funding, to raise around one million. This round of funding is to boost their hiring, helping them scale their size, services and offerings in the market. In the last two months, they have added eight new dishes and now offer 36 different varieties of dishes.
Moving forward, the duo aims to expand their operating geographies to the whole of south Bengaluru, including Marathali, HSR Layout, Koramangala, Electronic City, Sarjarpur Road and Whitefield. Currently, the startup delivers in and around Indiranagar, Ulsoor, Kodihalli, Murugeshpalya, Domlur. It also plans to launch a mobile application for Android and iOS.
Speaking on what sets them apart, co-founder Taru refers to standardisation of recipes and their sourcing of ingredients as key differentiators:
We have standardised recipes which have been documented and preserved. We also have a healthy mix of in-house masalas. Thus, the taste and quality of food does not change in the hands of different chefs. We hold the reins on what we want to deliver and how, so that we keep meeting the expectations of the customers and even outpace them. Moreover, we source the ingredients from the respective origins of the food. For example, for our litti chokha, the sattu is sourced from Bihar, and for masala poha, the rice is sourced from Indore. This brings an authenticity to the taste.
The Drive
The co-founders believe that mistakes and learnings make the foundations stronger for any organisation. Driven to do things differently, they are eager to engage the various stakeholders in their business and learn from the insights received from them. They say:“It is a great experience to see our own creation growing by leaps and bounds. When we look around, there is so much positivity in the startup environment, with unlimited possibilities and things one can do. We see a long way ahead where we would want to explore newer partnerships for snacking and be known as the one and only when it comes to breakfast, brunch and snacks.”
Industry
As many as 17 fresh foodtech startups sprouted up by the month of April, presenting during YourStory’s Food Tech Crowd Pitch Challenge in Bengaluru. Despite star startups like Swiggy, TinyOwl, Fresh Menu, Holachef dominating this space, the funding from VCs doesn’t seem to stop for this segment. When looked at closely, one sees an active herd mentality amongst VC firms making this segment a pet favourite.