Food tech start-up HungerBox on Thursday said it has raised $4.5 million in a Series A funding round led by South Korean investment firm Neoplux and India’s private equity fund Sabre Partners.
Existing investors LionRock Capital (Singapore) and Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan also participated in the round. The company had raised $2.5 million in a pre-Series A round from LionRock and Gopalakrishnan in January this year.
The Bengaluru-based start-up, which caters to businesses, plans to utilize the funds to spur rapid growth in India and fuel the company’s expansion into the South-East Asian market.
“The strength of their (HungerBox) technology-led solution, deep penetration into large corporate accounts and carefully calibrated growth means their business is extremely robust. We are delighted to partner this exciting company as they harness the potential for disruption in the corporate catering space in other markets beyond India,” said Alex Noh, head of cross-border investment, Neoplux.
HungerBox, which clocks six million orders a month in over 160 digital cafeterias (corporate cafeterias operating through an app, bringing vendor partners like FreshMenu as a counter in the cafeteria), caters to clients including Qualcomm, Microsoft, Accenture and McKinsey. The spending on food and beverages (F&B) in the business-to-business space alone is estimated to reach $14 billion in India in 2018 with an annual growth of 15%.
“Many of our clients are MNCs and we have been receiving many requests for us to support them in markets outside India. Having marque investors place their faith in us boosts our prospects, especially as we expand our operational footprint,” said Sandipan Mitra, CEO and co-founder at HungerBox.
Founded in 2016, by Sandipan Mitra and Uttam Kumar, HungerBox uses technology like internet of things (IoT) to connect vendors and corporate employees while providing personalized recommendations to employees through its artificial intelligence driven technology. The start-up is currently present in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi/NCR, Jaipur, and Kolkata.
Source: Mint