BetterButter Internet Pvt Ltd, which runs online recipe sharing portal BetterButter.in, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by Delhi-based Growx Ventures, an early-stage investment firm.
Singapore-based M&S Partners and angel investor Manish Singhal also put money in this round, as per a press statement.
Founded in March by Sukhmani Bedi and Niyaz Laiq, New Delhi-based BetterButter is a social discovery platform for recipes. It allows users to share recipes and discover new ones from celebrity chefs and other users. Sukhmani has worked with IMF, Deloitte, and Phillips while Laiq was associated with Hermes PE in London/ Singapore and Lok Capital in Delhi.
“Indians are voracious consumers of recipes on the internet, and we believe that there is potential to create a new kind of food and kitchen-centric platform in India with tens of millions of monthly, highly-engaged users. Niyaz and Sukhmani have the right vision and skills to make this happen," said Ashish Taneja, MD at Growx ventures.
BetterButter is expected to use the money raised to expand operations and augment its technology platform. As a part of the transaction, Singhal will join the board of BetterButter.
“Our goal is to make BetterButter synonymous with cooking at home in India. We are delighted to have great investors who share this vision with us," said Sukhmani and Laiq.
Recipe sharing is typically an informal affair in the Indian context. Tech-savvy individuals use Facebook groups and YouTube channels to share and procure new recipes.
Cucumbertown, which was recently acquired by Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed Cookpad for an undisclosed amount, is another organised player in this space. Cucumbertown started off as a recipe sharing platform. Today, it also allows users in over 160 countries to customise their blogs with kitchen and food-related themes. Going forward, BetterButter aims to become the de-facto platform for ‘all things kitchen’, the company said.
Growx invests in ideation stage, prototype, proof-of-stage and early revenues startups. Growx has already put money in over 15 companies since inception two-and-a-half years ago. Its portfolio companies include AdSparx (video ad tech platform), FortunePay (e-payments processing), ShepHertz (cloud platform for app developers), and Zolijns Designs (furniture and furnishings) in India; Mad Street (artificial intelligence and computer vision technology) and Quandl in Canada, among others.
Growx last invested in Bangalore-based Qyk Inc, which runs a mobile marketplace for local services.