Tastykhana.com aims to hit Rs 100 crore mark by 2015

PUNE: Tastykhana.com, an online food delivery service, aims to hit Rs 100 crore in marketplace revenue by 2015. The company currently operates in Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi NCR, and generated business worth Rs 8.5 crore for hotels in 2012-2013. Shachin Bharadwaj, CEO & Founder, Tastykhana.com said that they were open to acquisitions in new markets, but so far hadn’t found a suitable target. “When we launch in a new city, we evaluate whether we should acquire an existing player or do it ourselves, but so far we’ve found that it’s a lot cheaper and cost effective to launch on our own. Nobody has the kind of scale we want,” he says.

The six-year-old Pune based company was recently funded by Germany’s Delivery Hero, which has a similar service and business model. The Berlin based company will be investing $5 million in Tastykhana over a three year period, after which it will have first right of refusal on any subsequent fundraising. Bharadwaj said that this was a strategic investment and the company had gained a great deal of expertise from this association. Delivery Hero had participated in an earlier round of seed funding in 2011 as well. The funds will be used mainly to fuel their growth and consolidation.

The company has changed its sales strategy and now operates centrally through its Pune office. “We’ve added 3000 restaurants only by interacting with them on the phone. This was a break from how we used to operate,” he says. These efficiencies are huge, with a five member acquisition team working across all cities where the company is now present. The company has a total of 5000 restaurant partners on board across various cities.

Bharadwaj said that at present the idea was to consolidate and improve their offerings in these cities, though Chennai and Hyderabad were next on the agenda, perhaps in 2014.

While a large part of their sales happen through home users, to boost its presence in office, the company has recently launched a corporate card as well as a takeaway option which offers special deals when booked through the website, but picked up from the restaurant.

“We are an enabler, but we take service and fulfilment seriously," says Bharadwaj as to what their greatest value proposition is. Apart from putting the customer in touch with the restaurant, Tastykhana.com takes responsibility for payments as well. He explains that in case there is a discrepancy in the price displayed on the website and price actually charged by the restaurant, they take on the liability themselves.