Fingerlix, a startup which provides ready-to-cook food, has today announced that it has secured around Rs 45 crore in its new funding round led by Accel Partners. Along with Accel Partners, existing investor of the startup — Zephyr Peacock has also participated in the current funding round.
The newly infused capital will be used by the company to enter cities beyond Mumbai, Pune and NCR where it is currently present. It is also looking to expand to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai and increase presence in the NCR market.
The firm is also looking to invest some of the capital in newer products, including recipe-based offerings in several centre-of-plate categories such as snacking where it sees a huge opportunity.
With this new investment, the total funding raised by the Mumbai-based startup now stands at Rs 63 crore. Shree Bharambe, CEO of Fingerlix, said,
We have one kitchen in Mumbai, which covers the supply for Mumbai and Pune, another is coming up in Delhi and we will also have one in the south. Our sense is that the three facilities will cover the volume for all our cities going forward.
The company’s long-term goal is to expand its presence to the international market. Currently, it is looking to establish its presence in the 10 Indian cities.
Commenting on the investment, Prashanth Prakash, a partner at Accel India, said,
We have been looking at this category (of food) for some time but for a slightly differentiated play. There are intellectual properties being built at Fingerlix that enable delivery of ready-to-cook foods with longer shelf lives even while maintaining quality and taste. The underlined product-market fit is quite disruptive here as far as we are concerned.
The company says that it will use artificial intelligence-based solutions to streamline its supply chain and improve its demand forecast. This is to help meet the demand for fresh products regularly while cutting down on wastage.
Currently, Fingerlix says that it has about 15 SKUs with fresh batter forming almost 50 percent of its revenue pie. The company is aiming to Rs 500 crore in revenues by 2021.