Food delivery startup Grab raises $1 M from Oliphans Capital and Haresh Chawla  

Food delivery segment seems to be the hottest zone attracting investors money. After TinyOwl, TapCibo, Swiggy and Frsh, Grab.in (formerly Grab a Grub) has raised $1 million from Oliphans Capital and independent investor Haresh Chawla.

The funding will enable Grab to expand in new markets like Pune and other cities in the near future. The company plans on deploying 800 riders in Pune enabling it to deliver approximately 7000 orders daily across 700 outlets.

Founded by Jignesh Patel, Nishant Vora and Pratish Sanghvi in 2012, Grab is a food logistics firm. At present, Grab works with over 350 restaurants in Mumbai and has now launched its services in Pune. The last financial year, it delivered orders worth Rs 35 crore in Mumbai.

Speaking about the fund raise, Pratish Sanghvi said, “Home delivery orders are a significant portion of a restaurants turnover. However, the last mile delivery is a challenge for most restaurants. Grab uses technology to ensure the operational execution is seamless. While Grab reduces a restaurant’s delivery cost by converting it from fixed to a variable cost, it also allows it to expand its reach to a larger customer base.”

Grab, with a team of 500 smart riders on its rolls in Mumbai, ensure that the food is delivered in 40 minutes from the time a customer places an order at the restaurant.

Grab has recently tapped into the tiffin delivery segment predominantly run by Mumbai’s famous dabbawallas. A deeper penetration into the city with the option of delivering tiffins even in the night has allowed Grab to bridge the gap.

Over the past six months, VCs have been fearlessly backing food delivery plays in India. Mumbai-based food ordering app TinyOwl had raised Rs. 100 crore in its Series B round from Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital and Nexus Venture Partners. Bengaluru-based Swiggy recently secured $2 million funding from Accel Partners and SAIF Partners.

Besides startups, the food delivery segment has attracted biggies like Zomato and Foodpanda.

Zomato had begun online ordering in the Delhi NCR region and the feature will soon be rolled out in Bangalore, Mumbai, and other cities, while Foodpanda has started food delivery in five Indian cities, including Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru and is planning to ramp up this number to 12, in the next three to six months.

Following the footsteps of rival Uber in the US, homegrown app-based taxi and autorickshaw aggregator Ola (earlier Ola Cabs) launched a food delivery feature called ‘Ola Cafe’ on its app. Currently, Ola Cafe is available only in some parts of Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad, which enables food delivery to users in just 20 minutes.