Startup Happy Cook aims to turn novice chefs professional: Here's how

Year 2016 has had burnt leftovers and stale smoke emanating from the kitchen of food startups and aggregators. The names that have joined the long line of startups which pulled down shutters include Tiny Owl, one of the most well-funded startups to many others such as Langhar, Eatlo, Dazo, Spoonjoy. Yet, funding has been higher to the sector at $2.6 billion over 133 rounds in 2016 which is at par with overall funding in 2015, according to Tracxn. [caption id=“attachment_3028110” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Co-Founders, HappyCook[/caption] In this space here comes another startup Happy Cook started by four enthusiastic founders. The Bengaluru-based startup aims to make it easy for anyone to rustle up their favorite meal with pre-portioned, fresh-cut ingredients (veggies, meat, masalas, oil, spices) required to cook a meal. All that the customer has to do is follow the specifications of the recipe and everything required for it from salt to sauces to oil is measured and come in a corrugated box. That takes off the likelihood of messing up the recipe in any way. The startup was the genesis of Athul Uday and Arjun Venugopal ( both 27 year-old) who realized that there was a market for their offerings given that a large number of youth and young couples live away from home and in cities where nostalgia remains a large part of their memories of home-cooked food. They roped in Midhun Menon (31) who says, “We realised that currently much of our lifestyle problems are associated with the fundamental choices we make with regard to food. We wanted to provide healthy alternatives so that the customer feels proud of making a good meal in a short span of 30 minutes with our ready-to-make meal box.” Enthused with the idea, a friend of the trio, Vedika Thakur too joined them. Thus was born Happy Cook to help novices and enthusiastic cooks make fail-proof dishes. The foursome pooled in Rs 20 lakh and did a market research in December 2015 to understand the cooking habits of double income families and bachelors. The results revealed that the idea had a 72 percent acceptance, and that around 97 percent of the first-time buyers of the meal box would go in for a repeat order. The beta format was subsequently launched in March 2016 with a sample of 15 recipes across four regions in the country. It had vegetarian and non vegetarian options and served 100 customers. After developing a full-fledged website, the startup was launched in end-May 2016. Uday has quit the venture and the startup is now run and managed by the other three co-founders. Venugopal says that the business model of Happy Cook is unlike that of a food startup. “We are an ‘un-food’ tech company. While all other food tech companies are about aggregation and information structuring, we are a real food business with tech being an enabler. We are about unit economics and we are here for the long-term,” he emphasises. How it works The startup has 60 recipes on its menu, six chefs (three of them former chefs from five star hotels) and a celebrity blogger. The recipes are sourced by Thakur. Each recipe that a chef creates provides him a commission every time it is ordered. The recipes have the chef’s name to acknowledge his efforts. “We wanted to simulate a restaurant menu,” says Venugopal, explaining the reason for the large menu. The startup works on a pre-order format. However, it also does same day delivery service. With a centralized kitchen in Bengaluru, the company offers a variety of food at prices starting from Rs 99 for salads, bhindi masala, Hariyali chicken to the most expensive item on the menu currently being Singapore crabs at Rs 249. All portions are meant for one person. “We do 15 to 20 orders per day with each order approximately of around Rs 250 to Rs 300 which consists of a main course curry and a starter. There is a choice of either chapatti or rice to go with it. The portion sizes range from one person to four persons,” says Menon. There are competitors for Happy Cook in the category with Chef Grab, Hola Chef and Fresh Menu. Yet, the meal kit industry is as yet a relative new category in India which largely caters to a gourmet palate. This is why the trio are hopeful of making a mark with everyday meals that can cater to a larger audience. According to a BCG report, the three largest consumer spend categories in the country today are food, housing and consumer durables which will remain at the top as far as Year 2020. Food makes up nearly one-quarter of all consumer spend. While the category is growing more slowly than others, both the quantity and quality of the food that Indian consumers eat will improve, says the report. And this is a slot that Happy Cook wants to occupy with their varied offerings and a large menu that they want to expand further. The startup wants to scale to 100 recipes in their kitchen which is equipped to make 500 meals a day. The co-founders plan to go for external funding and open a second kitchen in Bengaluru itself within four to six months. In a year’s time, they hope to hit 1,000 orders a day and then move to other metros.