Food and beverage tech startup HungerBox on Thursday announced that it has secured fresh funds in a Series A round. The round, which infused capital worth $4.5 Mn, was primarily led by Neoplux (an investment firm based in South Korea) and India’s home grown private equity fund Sabre Partners.
The round also saw participation from existing investors LionRock Capital and Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan. Both had infused $2.5 million in a pre-Series A round earlier this year. The startup stated that the latest capital infusion will come in handy to fuel its expansion across India and also South-East Asian market.
Started in 2016, HungerBox is a full-fledged food tech startup that mainly caters at corporate employees by seamlessly connecting them to food vendors and cafeterias. It leverages breakthrough technologies like IOT to establish this seamless connection and also provides personalized recommendations to employees through its AI driven technology.
The Bengaluru based startups claims to boost good market traction, clocking almost six million orders a month in over 160 digital cafeterias. Its customers include high profile corporate names like Qualcomm, Microsoft, FirstSource, Accenture, CapGemini etc.
The startup has presence in almost all metropolitan hub including Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi/NCR, Jaipur, and Kolkata.
Corporate employees suffer from hunger pangs
Corporate employees at large don’t depict a rosy picture as far as their option for quality food goes. The food sourced from home and office canteens either lack the freshness quotient or simply don’t meet the quality standards. This compelling situation results in long hours of hungry pangs for employees, which in-turn takes adverse toll on their work productivity.
Experts say that there is an overwhelming need to address this pain-point, which represents an opportunity for startups like HungerBox.
There are several other startups that are trying to address the hunger pangs of corporate employees. While most of these startups are decently funded, none of them have managed to raise huge funds.