India’s foodtech sector is suddenly buzzing with so many activities that it appears that the entire industry is going through renaissance period. Now the latest buzz is that Naspers, which is the largest stake holder in Swiggy, is in discussion to invest in corporate catering startup HungerBox.
People familiar with the matter are claiming that South African media giant is planning to invest $12-15 million in HungerBox. However, sources are also claiming that ongoing talks are still in preliminary stage and there is no guarantee that deal will fructify.
For people who don’t know, HungerBox offers catering solutions to MNCs through its various digital solutions. These solutions have been created to help MNC employees to seamlessly connect with cafeterias & food courts for quenching their hunger.
If reports are to be believed then this Bengaluru based startup posts more than 200,000 orders every day. The startups’ official website claims several high profile MNCs including GE, Firstsource and Qualcomm as its clients.
Reports of Naspers’ likely investment in HungerBox has come at a very interesting time. This is because these reports have come closely on the heels of Zomato’s acquisition of TongueStun, which is also engaged in corporate catering.
However, it is certainly difficult to ascertain whether Zomato’s latest acquisition has propelled Naspers to initiate investment talks in HungerBox.
Foodtech sector is in the center of all the attention
With the foodtech sector successfully having gone through the consolidation phase, the entire industry is now garnering unprecedented interests from investors. Most of investor’s interest is obviously targeted towards Swiggy and Zomato, two of the most dominant players in the foodtech sector.
While Swiggy is reportedly on the verge of receiving a fat cheque from Tencent & other existing investors, Zomato is also likely to raise more funds in coming months. Separately, both companies are reported to have locked horns for attracting investment from SoftBank.
Besides, there is lot more cooking in the foodtech sector beyond Zomato and Swiggy. FoodPanda, which is now owned by Ola, is also soon likely to raise funds to compete with incumbent players. FoodPanda was recently in news for possible acquisition of defunct startup Holachef.
The competition in foodtech sector has also intensified due to UberEat, operated by cab hailing giant Uber. Although UberEat has so far surprisingly maintained a low key, it is certainly expected to become aggressive in coming months.