Freshening Up The Menu

- Pooja Mujumdar

OVER THE LAST DECADE, THE Indian palate has experienced an explosion of tastes with diners and foodies alike becoming more adventurous and experimental and trying out hitherto unexplored cuisines from around the world. The time, therefore, was ripe to introduce bold new tastes and flavours, and one of the first to capitalise on this window of opportunity was Rashmi Daga, who founded FreshMenu, her food-tech company, in Bengaluru, in 2014.

FreshMenu’s key differentiator was its daily changing menu. Every day saw its kitchens rustle up interesting fares from around the world and that left customers asking for more. Speaking about her game-changing USP, Daga says, “Today’s customers are constantly looking to eating something new. We realised that as a company, if we began by serving customers new dishes every day, it would keep things interesting enough for them to order often and not just once in a while. Secondly, being an internet-first company [online ventures solely based on the delivery model], it was necessary for us to build in a lot of surprise and novelty into what we were offering, as otherwise customers would have no reason to check it out.”

The ever-changing menu, delivered fresh at the doorstep, had people hooked sure enough, and today, FreshMenu is one of the top online food ordering companies in India. Backed by investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners and Zodius Capital, the company has seen rapid expansion to boast nearly 40 kitchens in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi-NCR, which now together cater to almost 20,000 orders daily.

Building the business