The Success Story of FoodyBuddy

Recall all the times you’ve sauntered into your building after an exhausting day and got swayed by all the delicious food aromas which are being prepared in the other apartments, making you long for some delectable and appetizing home cooked food? 

 

We all crave to taste home cooked meals at times yet end up resorting to order on food delivery platforms like Swiggy, Zomato, or Uber Eats, since we often don’t possess the energy or time to cook. 

 

Check out our latest blog on the story of Zomato

 

Although outside food is all well and good yet sometimes we might get weary of having fast food since often it can’t satisfy the craving we have for tasty, enticing home-made dishes which fill us with a gallon of memories tempting our taste buds. In the midst of our busy lives the familiar and fulfilling touch of home cooked meals ends up getting forgotten. 

 

Yet the primary issue is that it isn’t always easy to find the perfect food item that we are yearning for. Even if we do happen to locate a suitable restaurant, we might still not be able to conceive and rebuild that nostalgic sensation. But what if we tell you that there are ways through which you can get access to delicious home-made dishes prepared in your very own neighbourhood? 

 

There are applications which are created to help us in the process of getting our hands on delectable home cooked meals. One such application is FoodyBuddy.  FoodyBuddy is an application that connects buyers with home chefs, creating a network which bridges the neighbourhood through home cooked food. 

 

“This is about people who make amazing food for their families – and can ask others in their neighborhood if they would be interested in having the same dishes so they will make a larger portion,”

- Anup Gopinath, Founder of FoodyBuddy to The News Minute 

 

Through this blog, we will provide you a gist about the platform of FoodyBuddy, about its founders, its business model, its funding, its success story, its origin, as well as its growth.

 

Check out our latest success story on Razorpay.

 

About FoodyBuddy

 

“People get to consume fresh, authentic home-cooked meals, made people from various walks of life. We have home-makers, working women and even doctors, who want to explore their cooking skills,” 

- Anup Gopinath, Founder of FoodyBuddy to The Hindu

 

FoodyBuddy is a mobile application that aids home chefs in selling their food to people in their neighbourhood. The food items which aren't normally sold are sold through FoodBuddy's platform. From authentic Gujarati dal dhokli, Rajasthani dal bati, Andhra gattu vankaya or Karnataka’s gojju-avalakki, FoodBuddy's platform is the place where users can access a plethora of such refreshing food items.

 

Established in 2015, FoodyBuddy is primarily a hyperlocal platform that enables ardent cooks to provide home-made dishes for the users. The platform facilitates an abode for various home-makers that are passionate about cooking and wish to earn a sum by selling their prepared dishes. 

 

What sets FoodyBuddy apart is mainly the platform’s unique approach in the food delivery industry. The platform focuses more on molding its application within the community instead of getting too much on the normal logistics involved in the business. Anyone who is a good cook and wishes to begin selling their dishes, can sign themselves up on FoodyBuddy. The platform focuses on aiding these home chefs in molding into business women at their leisure through basic resources and minimum investment.

 

“It is a flexible app, and the whole process is decided by the buyers and sellers, we just provide the platform for them to connect with each other. The app is self explanatory. Once the seller registers himself/herself, the app takes them through step by step. Even then if they are not sure, then they have people that the sellers can connect to who will orient them on how they can use FoodyBuddy.”

 

Aside from the testimonials which can be written by users on the application, the platform is also equipped with a blog which lays the spotlight on superior dishes and chefs, becoming an immense source of motivation as well as recognition for the sellers.

 

The application is user friendly and provides a platform for buyers and sellers to connect through it and figure out the data for themselves. As reported by The News Minute, majority of the platform’s sellers are women who come from different spheres of life, some being working professionals that are accustomed to only cooking and selling dishes on weekends while others invest their time after their work and some are housewives or stay at home moms who are on the lookout for some additional income.

 

Take a look at the success story of Lenskart

 

 

The Origin of FoodyBuddy

 

“I was working at Zynga and would never have time to cook. But at the same time, I would smell the amazing food fragrance coming from my neighbor’s house. That is when I thought what if we could make a platform where home chefs can sell their food in their neighborhood," 

- Rachna Rao, FoodyBuddy’s co-founder to Mint 

 

FoodyBuddy was founded by Rachna Rao, Anup Gopinath and Akil Sethuraman. The trio had been employees at Zynga, an American company that specializes in developing games, prior to beginning their journey with FoodyBuddy.  Despite being cravers of good home cooked healthy meals, they were often too busy in their draining schedules to take out the time to cook. This led to them pondering over creating an app that can give lovers of home cooked meals an opportunity to connect with local cooks in their neighbourhoods, allowing such people to be able to access remarkable home cooked dishes near their neighbourhood.

 

The trio noticed the trend of Indian women cooking each day to serve their families, at times more than once, a task which often gets overlooked or unappreciated which led them to come across the resolution of developing an approach which would kill two birds in one stone. 

 

Thus, FoodyBuddy was established in 2015, a food startup which facilitates a common platform for both food lovers and home chefs to connect. This would allow both sides to be satisfied with purchasers having access to home cooked dishes on one hand while allowing home chefs to operate a business through their own kitchens at their leisure. 

 

Once the idea was conceived, Rachna, Akil as well as their former colleague, Anup resigned from their post at Zynga and began to collaborate together on this concept. The trio reached the realisation that the platform could serve as an abode for eager chefs from all spheres of life. For any user that wishes to cook, can do so and prepare any measure of servings to sell via FoodyBuddy’s platform. They emphasised on stressing on the seller more than the purchaser. Following the belief that all ardent lovers of cooking deserve a platform to showcase their expertise and allowing them to convey their love for home cooked food onto a wider circle of consumers, the platform was set up and scaled to become what it is now.  

 

 

Business Model of FoodyBuddy

---

The categories focused on by FoodyBuddy

---

FoodyBuddy primarily focuses on two aspects through its platform, which is mainly to aid both the buyer aka the Foodie and the chef aka the Buddy. The platform allows its users to select from a variety of dishes. The platform also allows the Buddy to maintain supervision of what the user can view. They can choose the planning time, the serving measures, the menu, as well as the cost of the dish prepared. The main duty of the platform is to connect the Buddy and the Foodie who lie in a particular area or neighbourhood. 

 

The business of the chef on the platform depends on the number of servings which they aim to prepare to sell.  The chef gets to select the price as well as remaining charges on the dish being sold. As they need to handle the delivery and packing of the dish, they are also accountable for their sale’s quality. Standing out from various other platforms operating in the business of food delivery, FoodyBuddy takes a new approach by supplying healthy and home-made dishes which are prepared by people we can trust. 

 

The platform charges a commission from its chefs lying in the range of 5 and 10 percent. The platform also adorns the home cooks with adjustability as well as an easy interface in order to prepare and sell what they require and when they require it. It also allows the foodies to rate the food as well as the gourmet specialists via the app as well as allowing the Foodie and the Buddy to interact via its platform. 

 

 

FoodyBuddy Recent Growth

 

With the emergence of the COVID19 lockdown, home cooked meals have become the safe new trend which has led to many women finding an abode on the platform of FoodyBuddy 

 

As reported by NewIndianExpress, the co-founder of FoodyBuddy Rachna Rao stated that the demand for the platform has risen to a great degree amidst the COVID19 era. The new application introduced by the platform named “Chef Buddy”, which has been developed for aiding people who are operating home food businesses, has witnessed over 1,000 registrations in the span of the first month alone. 

 

 

FoodyBuddy’s Funding

 

The platform’s leading investor is Prime Venture Partners who invested in the platform in the month of December 2018. The platform obtained ₹ 6 crores from Prime Venture Partners in Pre-Series A funding round. The funding was adopted for developing the platform as well as expanding the team. 

 

 

Conclusion

 

FoodyBuddy presents a refreshing new take on the food industry. The platform has now successfully established itself as a renowned name in the home food industry, FoodyBuddy now has a sea of satisfied users standing by the platform’s name, both on the part of buyers and sellers. The platform is confidently set on its path of accomplishing its future goals, displaying a great degree of promise and scope for paving its way towards further growth and dominance in the future.