The Venture Intelligence Blog

Update by Arun Natarajan, Founder, Venture Intelligence: I recently (in September 2016), for the first time, had the opportunity to try out rail food delivery (when I was traveling from Alleppey to Chennai). Unfortunately, the first online service I headed to - TravelKhana - said they don't service this route and RailYatri's site didn't work at all. I then chose a company from the non VC-backed list - YatraChef . While no one turned up at the station at which they were supposed to deliver (!), someone from their cell center called (immediately at the departure time) to check if I had received the food and once I said no, apologized and said they would deliver at the next major station. And, thankfully the delivery person (from their affiliate restaurant) at the next station, did not only deliver, but actually called 5 minutes before my train arrived and said he was waiting. Whew! Spared embarrassment with the family for suggesting we would use food tech instead of gett...

From the article in Businessworld: The young and the restless view it as a “cool” place to hang out. Poovili Manan, a commerce graduate from Chennai, says it “allows us to experience different brands (of foods) each time”. You can take your pick of the fare on offer — Chinese, Italian, south or north Indian or blends such as Arabic and Continental. Or hang out at “brands” — McDonald’s, or a KFC. There is something out here for the silver-haired, too. For them, it is less about food brand, and more about a sense of the community. Now to the food court math. “The revenue from food courts in our malls is commensurate with the area it has as a percentage of the overall mall. That is about 8-10 per cent of the overall leasable area. And revenues are the same in terms of contribution,” says Arindam Kunar, mall head and vice-president, DLF Place Saket in Delhi. The national capital is an exception — food courts generate nearly 15 per cent of a mall’s revenues due to extremes of weather. Many...

From the Businessworld article : The first to launch was Zee Khana Khazana about six weeks ago on the company’s DTH platform Dish TV. In a launch interview, business head of Zee Khana Khazana, Anurag Bedi, underlined the importance of food to the Indian viewer, calling it “one of the three non-communal religions after Bollywood and cricket”. The 24-hour food channel has on offer both Indian culinary programmes like A Touch of Turmeric as well as taking housewives through recipes with chefs on the international circuit like the Chinese food show Ching’s Kitchen. For content-producing company Alva Brothers, a food channel became a matter of necessity. The company’s foray into broadcasting with a Hindi entertainment channel, Real, came a cropper last year. Shutting it down, the group has morphed its broadcasting plans into a slew of lifestyle channels. The first offering from the Real Lifestyle Network will be ‘Food First’, expected to be on air in the next couple of weeks. Says Manisha T...