Food tech startup Daalchini Technologies plans to raise growth capital

Food-tech startup Daalchini Technologies plans to raise growth capital of up to USD 8 million (around Rs 58 crore) in the next 2-3 years to support its growth plans.

Daalchini Technologies, which provides home-cooked food through IoT-enabled vending machines, is expecting an annual turnover rate of Rs 144 crore by the end of FY22.

“Daalchini plans to raise growth capital of up to USD 5-8 million in the next 2-3 years. As of now, we are planning to raise the growth capital and we are in early-stage discussions with few prospective investors. As we adapt ourselves to the pandemic, we plan to raise fresh funds to expand our solution beyond 10 cities and the form-factor to more use-cases,” Prerna Kalra, Co-founder, and CEO, Daalchini technologies told media.

Daalchini, at present, has over 440 smart stores in 10 cities with more than 1.4 lakh monthly active users. The company has over 190 franchises, 100 brands, and more than 34 cloud kitchens selling on its platform.

In the midst of the pandemic, the company sees a huge opportunity in installing its vending machines at hospitals.

“Our contactless, smart vending machines are being deployed at the city’s key hospitals including Fortis, Max, Apollo, Dharamshila, Kailash, and Delhi Cancer Hospital. With this development, Daalchini will allow frontline workers, patients, and visiting families access to healthy meals in a safe, contactless manner. Considering the current situation, and the dire need for maintaining social distancing, hospitals are increasingly turning to AI, robotics, and other smart technologies within their premises,” Kalra said.

With more than 43,000 private hospitals and 25,000 public hospitals in India, the demand is already high and further increasing especially in current challenging times, she added. Kalra said Daalchini is refilling its machines 3-4 times a day across all the hospitals.

Elaborating on the company’s growth journey, Kalra said: “We grew from 2 kiosks to 50 in FY19, and from 50 to 200 in FY20. In Q4 of FY21, we grew from 200 to 310 and now 440+ kiosks by expanding the scope of our solution… The pace at which we are growing, we should be able to achieve an annual turnover rate of Rs 144 crore by the end of FY22”.

Daalchini has raised Rs 11 crore so far in the last two years through Artha Venture Fund and a few angel investors.