The startup says save cooking time!

-Jatin Kochar

We will come to know shortly, how the community will react to this kind of arrangement. The startup is eager to share the burden of some chores during food preparation. Are households ready to give it a try!

The food-tech industry is evolving with innovations. From reaching customers to delivery. It has reached the stage where it can help reduce the cooking time for the households!

On average it takes 45 minutes to 1 hour for preparing a meal. On the contrary, it takes around 10 minutes to gulp the meal readied and one is satiated till the next time. We Indians are in a habit of eating full meals- Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner- thrice a day.

So, it means, if not me then someone else is spending totaling 2-3 hours throughout the day to prepare the scrumptious food which I am consuming. A working Indian community member lacks such amount of time, hence on this premise Restaurants, Kitchen Spaces, and Delivery Startups have found their place in the ecosystem and each player is delivering the value enriching the experience.

One can imagine the necessity of food tech startups and restaurant industry as during the initial severe periods of lockdown, Kitchens were allowed to operate and delivery partners were performing their 'essential duties'.

Value Proposition for the Customers

As Food Tech is a relatively new industry, the innovations are on the go. Various founders are executing the concept, envisaged value proposition, and testing how the community is adapting and responding to it.

One such startup which caught attention is Fingerlix, On-Demand Ready to Cook Fresh food delivery brand, who in April 2020 raised 14 crores from existing investors like Swiggy and venture capital players at the whopping valuation of 337 Crores.

Fingerlix curtails the cooking time for the community and unlike other Ready to Cook brands availability on online and offline channels, additionally, it has On-Demand delivery services. The product portfolio includes mixes, curries, dals, paranthas, batter, and fully ready accompaniments even as sanitized and chopped vegetables.

Now, the food preparation is like a relay race, the first-half run, building the pace, is aced by the startup, and the second half sprinted session, is performed by the consumer.

Some Benefits, Few Challenges!

The Fingerlix founders understand the pain points of the customers and are performing the part where customers don’t have much of their valued time and they procrastinate the process. To have more control over the ingredients along with flavoring and garnishing and to avoid the excessive and uncontrolled ingredients, which are adverse for the digestion and body, by the restaurants to make food irresistible, there is a high tendency that consumers will adopt this methodology of the On-Demand Semi-Cooked Food.

Moreover, to the consumer’s content, the mentioned option would be pocket friendly leading to the creation of the new habit. As the idea sounds how much forethoughtful; but the startup faces the challenge of scaling up as of covering and expanding into the entire metro cities, as the real estate rentals and delivery costs form the maximum part of the expenses, which are fixed in nature and can be breakeven only by the economies of the scale.

Additionally, the premium margins of 50-70% which are the general trend of the Restaurant industry would not be replicated in this model as the food is not yet cooked and it is not on the plate.

We will come to know shortly, how the community will react to this kind of arrangement. The startup is eager to share the burden of some chores during food preparation. Are households ready to give it a try!