 "Hello Curry acquires tech startup Fire42")
Hello Curry, a Hyderabad-based Indian fast food chain, has acquired cloud and mobile-based point-of-sale systems start-up Fire42, from the city, in a part-cash, part-stock deal.
Founded by Santosh Achari, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology ( Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, and Srinivasan Rangarajulu, a chef and restaurateur from the US, in 2012, Fire42’s platform consists of a set of cloud-powered integrated software that provides management, analytics, marketing and operational tools for restaurants. The Fire42 platform has handled over one million orders, and helped serve over 300,000 customers.
“The idea is to transform Hello Curry into a food tech firm. Acquiring a tech company like Fire42 and then building unique features from the cumulative experience we have on top of this platform will provide us a definite edge,” Raju Bhupati, CEO, Hello Curry, said.
Founded by Santosh Achari, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology ( Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, and Srinivasan Rangarajulu, a chef and restaurateur from the US, in 2012, Fire42’s platform consists of a set of cloud-powered integrated software that provides management, analytics, marketing and operational tools for restaurants. The Fire42 platform has handled over one million orders, and helped serve over 300,000 customers.
“The idea is to transform Hello Curry into a food tech firm. Acquiring a tech company like Fire42 and then building unique features from the cumulative experience we have on top of this platform will provide us a definite edge,” Raju Bhupati, CEO, Hello Curry, said.
Fire42 is the second major acquisition that Hello Curry has made in less than three months. It had acquired Hyderabad-based food delivery startup Paratha Post in a part-cash and part-stock deal in April 2015.
Post the acquisition, Santosh Achari will join Hello Curry’s senior management team and report directly to Bhupati. The acquisition of Fire42 will also help Hello Curry expand pan-India.
The company is mulling options to kick off operations in New Delhi pretty soon, according to Bhupati.
Founded by Bhupati and his cousin Sandeep Penumatsa, a former assistant sales manager at Reliance Infocomm, in early 2014, Hello Curry is also aggressively looking at purchasing sick restaurants and turning them into kitchens to scale up its front-end operations. It has so far purchased a restaurant each in Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
The quick service restaurant chain had in March 2014 raised Rs 3 crore from SRI Capital, a early-stage venture fund founded by serial entrepreneur Sashi Reddi.
“Reddi has moved up his investment in Hello Curry to Rs 6 crore recently. We are also in the process of raising a further round of funding from venture capital firms in a couple of months from now,” he said, declining to comment further.