Kathi rolls to condoms, Fly By Knight aims to satisfy Mumbai's nocturnal cravings

When Neha Jain left her job at Google as a solutions consultant she probably didn’t think that a few years later she’d end up being Mumbai’s go-to-person for an after-hours cigarette call.

After completing her bachelor’s in journalism and working at Google India for over five years, the 28-year-old decided to take a sabbatical. It was then that a friend told her about his failed attempts to launch a nocturnal express delivery service in Bangalore for people with sudden cravings.

The concept
Intrigued by the concept, Jain put in Rs 3 lakh of her personal savings as seed money. “I decided to run it as a social experiment between Andheri and Bandra in Mumbai and find out what people had to say,” she says. Turns out people were very vocal about calling for the services of a midnight Jeeves of sorts, and that’s how Fly By Knight (FBK) was born in 2012.

Having met with a good response, Jain decided to expand her reach to other parts of Mumbai. However, this was soon stymied with the high attrition rate of the the delivery boys.

To deal with the logistics issue, Jain launched a ‘Crusader’ program - telling people who wanted to help outto join her delivery team. A bunch of people signed up - housewives, students, television producers and even a band manager who agreed to don the Batman masks (taken from the company’s logo of a doodled Batman) Jain provided. They made nocturnal deliveries to customers within a five km radius of their homes.

[caption id=“attachment_86350” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Founder Neha Jain.[/caption]

For their efforts, these masked crusaders were given about Rs 50 per delivery. The masks were only a promotional concept and later discontinued. The two-month long blitz created a lot of buzz in the media and the venture received free publicity.

The company operates between 9 pm and 5 am, seven days a week and delivers items from a fixed inventory (you can also order for sanitary napkins, antacids and contraceptives) across Mumbai-from Nariman Point to Malad up to Powai. The delivery rate is Rs 100, regardless of the value of the order. However, if a customer orders online, then the price is lower at Rs 50. Delivery is free for orders over Rs 500. The order usually reaches the customer within 45 minutes, says Jain.

An angel calls
To cater to the rising demand for hot food items besides snacks, Jain decided to set up a central kitchen. FBK recently received an undisclosed amount from Ravikant Sharma, a venture capitalist, that helped Jain set up the kitchen in Mahim, Mumbai. Sharma says the `near zero’ possibility of failure of FBK was one of the reasons why he decided to invest in the venture.

“Since April 2014, FBK delivers hot food items like pasta, rice and starters at prices which are at par with average market rates,” says Jain. Currently, FBK transacts business worth Rs 8,000 daily, says Jain, adding that revenue growth is at 172 percent year-on-year.

Picking pace
When FBK was launched, Jain received barely an order a day but now the company executes 28-30 deliveries a week. There are times when the company cannot accept all the orders it gets, says Jain. “We also receive orders from customers who live outside Mumbai and have friends or family here that they want to surprise with an 11 pm Maggi noodles delivery or a cake, " she says.

Jain now wants to expand the company’s inventory. She is looking at partnering with local businesses like restaurants and florists, besides delivering alcohol during permissible hours and hopes to launch these services as early as in the next few months. There are also plans to launch a mobile app.