Gurugram-based food tech startup Yumist, which provided home-style food prepared in their own kitchen, has announced that it is shutting down operations.
The company has cited lack of funding as a major reason behind this move. Yumist was founded in November 2014 by Alok Jain and Abhimanyu Maheshwari.
In a blog post announcing this move, the founders of the company said:
We failed to raise the kind of capital that this business required while staying true to the customer problem. In hindsight, there’s a bunch of internal and external factors that led us to this dead end.
In hindsight, we have no complaints and, in fact, are proud entrepreneurs today. Building Yumist gave us the opportunity to work with great minds, work at the cutting edge of food science and technology in all its facets, and create frameworks and supply chains we believe will become industry standards in the near future. The thrill and meaningfulness of the journey supersede any destination we might have hoped to reach.
For the customers who still have balance in their YumCash digital wallet, the company is refund. Customers need to fill out an online form and share account details to get the refund.
As per the founders, the company was making ₹65 in margins per order at an average order serving two people value of ₹190. The delivery outlets were breaking even at just 70 orders a day, and they were acquiring new customers at ₹180 and recovering back this money within 45 days.
Yumist had raised its last funding round in December 2015, when Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures, Orios Venture Partners and Steven Lurie invested ₹12 crore in the company. Prior to that, the company had raised ₹6.5 crore
With this, Yumist is joining the list of companies in the food tech sector, which shutdown. Such startups include iTiffin, Eazymeals, BiteClub, Dazo, among others.
As per the report from RedSeer, India’s online food delivery market saw a growth of 150% in 2016 in comparison with 2015. Yumist’s closure comes at a time when the food ordering market in India is seeing new entrants such as Uber and Google. However, Zomata and Swiggy are still dominating the market.