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Hyderabad-based Hello Curry, an on-demand food company focusing on Indian cuisine, is looking to raise Rs 50 crore to fund its expansion.
“We are in talks with multiple investors to raise funds and hope to close a deal soon,” Raju Bhupati, CEO and co-founder of Hello Curry told Business Standard.
The company had raised a seed-fund of Rs 3 crore a year ago from Sashi Reddi of Sri Capital to start off its business. The company started its business in Hyderabad in 2014 and has now expanded to Bengaluru. It is also looking to expand all across the country, he said.
For the foray and expansion in Bengaluru, its strategy has been to acquire sick restaurants and turn them around by increasing revenue streams. While, Hello Curry has bought a restaurant in northern part of the city by buying it in its entirety, including its HR resources, it will finalise its purchase of one in south Bengaluru in a fortnight or so, in Sarjapur. It has also set up a takeaway point that could cater to the CBD of the city.
“While restaurants expect the customer to walk to them, we want to walk to the customer,” Bhupati said, adding, “another strategy of the company is that it will cook food only after an order is placed and not reheat cooked food.”
He says, most of the food on its menu will be delivered in three minutes, except some fried food that might take six minutes.
Going forward, Hello Curry plans to expand its operations to the National Capital Region. “We plan to kick off our operations in NCR soon with the seed fund we have raised from SRI Capital. We also intend to penetrate into Tier-2 cities as well,” he said.
Hello Curry presently has four kitchens in Hyderabad and one standalone quick-dine-in, which was a brand-building exercise for it.
It will soon be setting up two more kitchens in Hyderabad. For setting up a kitchen, it costs the company Rs 10-12 lakh.
