The Venture Intelligence Blog

An Indian Express article chronicling the growth and evolution of Food tech companies in India quotes Venture Intelligence data on PE-VC investments in restaurants: "..PE-VC funds have pumped in $843 million in the restaurants business - as per data sourced from Chennai-based firm Venture Intelligence - the investment in the two online platforms has been about $700 million." A related article by FactorDaily , on restaurateurs taking on food tech companies also quotes the same data. Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India.

From an Economic Times article titledd "Do PE firms make bad chefs?" citing the problems at Adiga's, Sagar Ratna and Nirula's. Prudent investment metrics back PE's thinking in grabbing pieces of the Rs 1,00,000 crore Indian restaurant industry. The industry is growing at a brisk 20 per cent a year. But, only about one-seventh of the industry is organised, says Technopak Advisors. And even some of that suffers from a hangover of its unorganised past, where cash deals were the norm, where contracts were a matter of spoken word and where much pivoted around the promoter. It was in this complex concoction that restaurant promoters and PE shook hands. Promoters wanted PE capital to grow. And PE came in with the understanding that the path to that growth flowed through processes, standardisation and corporatisation -- essentially, organising the unorganised. A critical factor in this transition is promoter buying. "The promoters should continue to...

Extracts From Business Today : ...the fine and casual dining sector - currently estimated to be around Rs 3,000 crore - has customers eating out of its hands.... With all the big players gung-ho on expansion, fine and casual dining is expected to touch Rs 10,000 crore by 2015.     ...Restaurants come in two broad formats - the fine or casual dining chains, and the quick service ones. The fine and casual dining formats are essentially the same, varying only in prices charged: thus restaurants such as those which are part of the Taj Hotels would be classified as 'fine dining' ones, while the likes of Mainland China and Spaghetti Kitchen fall in the casual dining category. The economics of the quick service restaurants (QSRS) are very different. The success of the latter - such as McDonald's, Domino's or Pizza Hut - is apparent; indeed, Jubilant FoodWorks, which holds the franchise for Domino's, also listed successfully on the stock market in 2010. QSR...

From the Forbes India profile of VC-backed North Indian restaurant chain. Today, Mast Kalandar has 22 outlets and a clear plan to reach 100 before the end of next year. And then, 500 more. And all this using the almost bland cuisine positioning: “Authentic, vegetarian, homemade style North Indian food.” Wasn’t eating out all about escaping homemade food? Increasingly, there’s a new category of customers frequenting restaurants: They eat out or order in because they don’t want the hassle of cooking at home. They include working professionals who don’t have the time or knowledge for everyday cooking, or newly married working couples who don’t want to deal with dirty vessels, maids and grocery. That is the primary market Mast Kalandar is targeting. ...Its decision to offer freshly cooked meals is both its biggest differentiator and its biggest execution risk. “Over 30 percent of our customers dine more than six times a month with us,” says Gaurav. The restaurants seat 55-60 people, who s...