Hoi foods

Hoi Foods, legally known as Hoi Food Concepts Pvt. Ltd., operated as a cloud kitchen platform based in Gurugram, India. The company was founded in April 2017 by Indrajeet Roy and Pawan Raj Kumar. The founding idea stemmed from Roy's personal experiences as a frequent traveler, where he noticed a significant disparity between the quality of budget hotel stays and the food they offered. Roy, an industrial engineer from IIT Delhi, had prior entrepreneurial experience, having founded an edtech company, SkillWill, and a consulting firm, Sookshm. His partner, Kumar, brought over two decades of experience in the food service industry, including work with major QSRs like McDonald's and KFC, and as the founder of a packaged food business.

The company's initial business model focused on standardizing the food experience in budget hotels by working closely with their kitchens and supplying them with pre-prepared meals. This was facilitated by a hyperlocal cold chain the company developed to ensure freshness and quality. Hoi Foods quickly expanded its model to include a direct-to-consumer approach through a network of cloud kitchens, which are delivery-only restaurants that minimize overhead costs by forgoing a physical storefront. Customers could place orders through partnered food delivery platforms like Swiggy and Zomato. The company operated its own flagship brands, including Hoi Foods, Jacky Ching, and Hoi Café, and also partnered with other brands like Deez Biryani, Nirula's, and Ketofy to operate on its network. The menu offered a variety of multi-cuisine meal combos, with an average order size of around Rs 180.

Throughout its operation, Hoi Foods secured significant funding to fuel its expansion. The company raised a total of $4.84 million over five rounds from a mix of institutional investors and angel backers. Notable funding rounds included $500,000 in a seed round in 2018 and $2 million in a pre-Series A round in May 2020, led by 1Crowd. By 2020, the company reported having a network of over 150 cloud kitchens across Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru, serving more than 5,000 meals a day. At its peak, the company had partnerships with major budget hotel chains like OYO, Treebo Hotels, and Fab Hotels. Despite its growth and a last known valuation of $11.6 million as of October 2021, the company is now listed as deadpooled.

Keywords: cloud kitchen, foodtech, food delivery, budget hotel F&B, multi-brand kitchen, online food ordering, ghost kitchen, Indian startup, virtual restaurant, meal combos, corporate catering, pre-prepared meals, food supply chain, hyperlocal delivery, restaurant network, delivery-only, Hoi Foods, Indrajeet Roy, Pawan Raj Kumar, Gurugram