BackHolachef in talks with Kalaari Capital, Sidbi for fresh funds
The funding will help food tech start-up Holachef strengthen operations in the existing cities while also enabling it to expand to newer ones
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Mumbai: Food-tech start-up Holachef is in talks to raise $6 million in its latest round of venture capital fundraising, led by existing investor Kalaari Capital, two people aware of the development said.
Sidbi Venture Capital Ltd, the wholly owned asset management company and a subsidiary of the Small Industries Development Bank of India will be participating in the new round, they said.
Mumbai-based Holachef, which was launched by Saurabh Saxena and Anil Gelra in 2014, delivers home-cooked food to customers. The startup has a presence in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune.
“Talks are at an advanced stage. Kalaari is leading the round and will be investing around $3.5 million in this round, and the rest will be invested by Sidbi," said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity as the talks are private.
The funding will help the start-up strengthen operations in the existing cities while also enabling it to expand to newer cities, this person said.
Apart from Kalaari, Holachef also counts Tata Sons Ltd chairman emeritus Ratan Tata and early-stage investor India Quotient among its investors.
Emails and text messages sent to Saxena for comments remained unanswered.
Emails sent to Vani Kola, founder of Kalaari Capital, and Sidbi Venture too remained unanswered. Anand Lunia, co-founder of India Quotient, declined to comment.
The latest round of fund-raising, featuring a new investor, follows a recent internal fundraising round and one involving raising venture debt by the company.
In July, VCCircle.com, citing documents from the registrar of companies, reported that Holachef had raised $1.95 million in funding from two of its existing venture capital investors Kalaari Capital and India Quotient.
On 6 October, InnoVen Capital India, a venture debt firm backed by Singapore’s state-run investment arm Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd, said that it has invested nearly $20 million in several start-ups including Holachef, in the quarter ended 30 September.
“The food-tech segment has gone through a lot of churn in the last one year and fundraising for several start-ups in the space has been a challenge. Holachef too has been in the market for some time now. Existing investors have continued to support the firm through this time and now external investors too are keen on the firm," said the second person cited above, requesting anonymity.
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