Food start-up Charcoal Eats raises Rs5 crore in pre-series-A round

New Delhi: Charcoal Eats, a chain of quick-service restaurants, on Wednesday said it raised Rs5 crore in a pre-series-A round to fund its expansion.

Investors in the round include Rajesh Ramanathan, head of global growth at Mondelez; Kush Verma, director at Asoka Capital; Rothschild Indian managing director Sanjay Bhandarkar; Amit Gupta, partner at New Quest Capital Partners; Vishesh Shrivastav, director at Temasek India; and Sachin Khivasara of Bouyant Capital.

The capital will allow Charcoal Eats to increase its footprint across new geographies and consolidate its presence in existing markets, besides funding brand building initiatives, the company said.

It operates 22 outlets across six cities—Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and the National Capital Region—and is targeting over 60 outlets across 10 cities in one year.

Charcoal Eats was co-founded by Anurag Mehrotra, Krishnakant Thakur, Gautam Singh and Mohammed Bhol, in Mumbai in September 2015.

Chief executive Anurag Mehrotra said Charcoal Eats is built on the premise of delivering well-packaged Indian food selection to customers. The firm works on a model that includes diners, both independent and at food-courts, and cloud kitchens for quick-delivery in the localities it serves.

“We have successfully achieved consistency and scalability in the Indian QSR segment which are two major challenges in this space. Our strong product focus enabled by in-house technology is at the heart of our business. In the last 2 years, we have served over half a million customers and enjoy a high customer satisfaction, resulting in repeat business of over 50%,” Mehrotra said.