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BOX8, one of the India’s fastest growing food delivery start-ups has raised Rs 7 Cr in venture debt funding from Trifecta Capital, in addition to Rs 50 crores raised in series B round from IIFL Seed Ventures Fund & Mayfield.
This food delivery start-up was initiated by two IIT graduates Amit Raj and Anshul Gupta. It is a full stack online food delivery player that specializes in preparing and delivering delicious Indian meals across Mumbai, Pune & Bengaluru. It serves around 14000 meals everyday through a network of more than 65 stores.
Amit Raj believes that venture debt is an excellent proposition since it provides access to debt where traditional bank lending does not participate, and does that without diluting equity, unlike venture capital. This will help them to maintain a balance in their financial structure and will eventually help in their growth.
Rahul Khanna, co-founder, Trifecta Capital pointed out that they had been monitoring the online food delivery sector for almost two years. More than 150 start-ups were funded in this space and as a venture debt provider, it was important for them to wait until some clarity emerged on the business models that would survive. BOX8 has demonstrated ability to grow quickly with focus on Indian food and has established a strong value proposition proven by high repeat customer behaviour. BOX8’s journey is something to look forward to.
The biggest benefit of this partnership is the profound experience & knowledge of the ecosystem that the Trifecta team brings in. BOX8 is aggressively looking at scaling up their operations with expertise flowing in from Trifecta at this stage.
With this venture debt, BOX8 intends to penetrate deeper into the existing three markets, forming micro catchments to enhance customer experience, and with that, they also plan to expand to new geographies using the same approach. Delhi operations are slated to begin in the next few weeks, while Hyderabad & Chennai will follow later this year.
Anshul Gupta commented that the team is very excited about expanding to Delhi. Starting with Gurugram, they plan to scale up operations in Delhi NCR in coming months. Mohit Surana, who established Bengaluru operations for BOX8, has taken charge to build their business in Delhi NCR region.
Delhi & Gurugram, with other capital regions, is a huge opportunity area for BOX8. Mohit Surana, Regional Head, BOX8 believes that their experience of last few years in the existing three cities has helped them to derive the success formula, and now the team will leverage these to establish leadership in NCR.
BOX8 remains focused on their underlying premise of becoming the leading brand in the space of Indian food delivery. It represents a made in India enterprise serving the best that Indian food has to offer.