Packaged food brand Yu has raised $1 million as part of its pre-Series A round from Manish Choksi and Varun Vakil, part of the Asian Paints promoter group, the company said on Wednesday.
Other investors participating as a part of the group include—UK based hospitality group, Lalvani family; Nikhil Srivastava, head of India at PAG private equity; and Vishal Sampat, founder, Convonix, among others.
The company is expected to use the proceeds from the round to scale operations and expand its presence across the country.
Yu provides a range of instant and ready-to-make meal bowls with zero preservatives.
“We have combined the most advanced food science technology with culinary arts to reimagine the future of packaged foods. Our instant meal bowls are packed with gourmet flavours and nutrients while using zero preservatives or artificial ingredients. The use of proprietary processes has enabled us to launch our products at an attractive price point of ₹75-100 per bowl. We are adopting an omnichannel sales strategy and in due course will be present in offline and online stores pan-India,” said Bharat Bhalla, founder and executive director, Yu Foodlabs.
All products are prepared and packaged at Yu’s integrated 12,000 sq. ft commercial scale food-lab in Gurugram, the company said.
“It has been heartening to receive a very tangible vote of confidence from an eminent set of investors in our pre-launch stage. We have partnered with high pedigree investors with backgrounds in consumer brands, private equity, hospitality, technology and digital marketing. We will use the funds to increase our production capacity to over 500,000 meal bowls per month while expanding our distribution network to key markets across India,” said Varun Kapur, founder and executive director, Yu Foodlabs.
The company is looking to add dessert bowls, asian noodle bowls and superfood breakfast bowls, to its offerings.
The company’s products are currently available at over 100 retail outlets across Delhi NCR including large format stores such as Reliance, Spencers, SPAR, Modern Bazar, Needs Supermarket. The company also has an online presence on e-grocery platforms BigBasket and Swiggy.
The brand aims to establish an offline presence across all other metro cities over the next year.
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