Cookr, a home food tech marketplace, has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding from a group of investors led by angels who work at prominent technology companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Intel, as well as other companies like Titan Company, M2P Fintech’s co-founders, WilcoSource LLC, RXDataScience Inc, Quadrand Resource LLC, and the Social Company.
The funding will help Cookr to expand its platform, enhance its features, and make home-cooked meals more accessible to customers across India.
The Chennai-based startup, founded by Praba Santhanakrishnana, Saravanakumar Kandasamy, and Nirmalkumar Muthu, connects customers with over 500 home cooks on the platform who offer a range of nutritious and hygienic home-cooked food options. The platform caters to customers’ dietary needs and preferences and offers an alternative to restaurant-delivered food without compromising taste or quality.
Cookr claims that all its partner cooks are FSSAI-certified and currently operational in nine cities in Tamil Nadu, including Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Hosur, Chidambaram, Thanjavur, Salem, Vellore, and Kumbakonam.
Cookr aims to onboard 200,000 home cooks over the next five years, and with the funding, it plans to expand its marketplace to other parts of India. The startup aims to leverage the growing demand for healthy and nutritious home-cooked meals and tap into the potential of the home food market in India. The home food market is an emerging space in India, and Cookr faces competition from other players like Dotshot, NatureBox, and Evo Foods.
While the concept of home-cooked food is not new, Cookr is focusing on providing a high-quality, reliable, and scalable platform that offers nutritious home-cooked meals to customers. The startup has positioned itself as an alternative to restaurant-delivered food and aims to create a sustainable business model that benefits both home cooks and customers. The home-cooked food market in India has seen several players in the past, but most of them have failed to scale. However, Cookr is optimistic about the potential of the market and plans to leverage technology and innovation to create a successful and sustainable platform.