ZuperMeal

ZuperMeal was a Mumbai-based food-tech startup founded in July 2015 by Pallavi Saxena, Prabhakar Banerjee, Balasubramanian Anantha Narayanan, Ravi Saxena, and Sharad Thakur. The company operated as a mobile-only open marketplace that connected home chefs with consumers seeking home-cooked meals. The venture was initiated by Pallavi Saxena, who had previous experience in the restaurant and hospitality sectors, alongside her husband and co-founder Ravi Saxena, who had been involved in building companies like Sodexo and Wonderchef. The founding team also included IIM graduates Balasubramanian A and Prabhakar Banerjee.

The business model centered on an app-based platform where customers could order a variety of meals, including lunch, dinner, and snacks, as well as subscribe to tiffin services. ZuperMeal's role was to curate the chefs and their dishes, manage pricing, and handle the complete logistics of food pickup and delivery, earning a net margin of 15% on the transactions. A key part of their mission was to empower homemakers by providing them a platform to monetize their cooking skills, offering training on hygiene and food safety. The service launched its operations in the Powai area of Mumbai.

In October 2015, just a few months after its launch, ZuperMeal secured $2 million in seed funding from a group of investors including celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor and Wonderchef co-founder Ravi Saxena. At its peak, the platform had registered 150 homemakers and was delivering 60 to 70 meals per day. Despite ambitious plans for expansion, including reaching 500 towns by 2020 and securing further investment, ZuperMeal ceased operations in May 2016, approximately eight months after its funding round. The shutdown was indicated by a non-functional website and app, and one of the co-founders had moved to another company, reflecting the broader challenges and high cash-burn rates facing the food-tech sector at the time.

Keywords: home-cooked meals, food delivery, mobile marketplace, food-tech, Mumbai startup, home chefs, online food ordering, tiffin service, meal delivery, Pallavi Saxena, Ravi Saxena, Sanjeev Kapoor, Prabhakar Banerjee, Balasubramanian Anantha Narayanan, Wonderchef, food aggregator, hyperlocal delivery, deadpooled, food startup, Indian startup