Blume-backed MonkeyBox acquires food delivery startup 75 In A Box

Blume Ventures-backed MonkeyBox Food Tech Pvt. Ltd, which delivers nutritious food to school children in Bengaluru, has acquired 75 In A Box in an all-stock deal.

In May, MonkeyBox had also bought juice maker RawKing to add fresh juices in its meal offerings for school children.

Founded by Chetan Pal, Dinakar Raju, Jayesh Sada and Veeraraghavan Vasudevan in August 2016, Bengaluru-based 75 In A Box delivers healthy food to offices.

“The acquisition is a strategic move for us as we try to expand our product offering to adults. 75 in a Box has considerable experience in the adult health food sector and is a perfect fit for us,” MonkeyBox co-founder Sanjay Rao told VCCircle, but did not share financial details of the deal.

“Raju and Vasudevan, along with a team of 10 members, have joined MonkeyBox. 75 In A Box will continue to operate under the same brand, but will be a subsidiary of MonkeyBox,” he said, adding that the services will be officially launched on 2 January across the city, including Koramangala, HSR Layout, Indiranagar, Whitefield, Sarjapur, JP Nagar and CBD.

“The subscription model will be available in five-day and 22-day format, and will comprise breakfast, lunch and snacks.”

According to Raju, 75 In A Box, which owns one kitchen in BTM Layout, delivered 200 nutrition food boxes on a daily basis. “We were not only providing curated world cuisine for fitness enthusiasts, but also healthy food for people with normal diets. We were also active on food delivery platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy.”

While 75 In A Box will serve veg and non-veg food from its own kitchen, MonkeyBox will add non-veg menu to four of its existing kitchens in February to cater to the needs of the corporate clientele. The company will also be available on food delivery apps in two months, said Raju.

MonkeyBox was incorporated in November 2015 by Rao, Kannambadi and Vijay Bharadwaj, all former staffers of tech giant Wipro. In November 2016, the company had raised an undisclosed amount in seed investment from early-stage investor Blume Ventures.

According to VCCEdge, the data research platform of News Corp VCCircle, Gana Yantrika Enterprises Pvt. Ltd, NB Ventures, Nspira Management Services Pvt. Ltd. and angel investor Atul Jalan had also participated in the funding round.

Currently, MonkeyBox claims to have 6,000 subscribers and processes nearly 12,000 orders daily across 150 schools in south, east and the northern suburbs of Bengaluru. Rao said the company was also trying to expand its services to Bengaluru Central, but has logistics issues due to heavy traffic.

In an earlier interview Rao had told VCCircle that he was looking to raise an additional $5 million as part of its Series A funding round by January, as the company plans to expand to Hyderabad and Chennai.

He had also said that the company will need capital to set up new kitchens in the target cities. “Setting up a new kitchen costs us at least Rs 1 crore. We are looking to close this round so that we can get everything ready before the start of the next academic year in June.”