MonkeyBox Food Tech Pvt. Ltd, which delivers nutritious food to school children in Bangalore, has raised an undisclosed amount in its pre-Series A round from existing investor Blume Ventures.
NB Ventures, Nspira, and some angel investors came on board as new investors in this round, a top company executive told VCCircle.
The new capital will be used for expansion, marketing campaigns, and to hire more employees.
“Our key focus at the moment is to expand to more schools across Bangalore. This round of funding will help us to start operations for our two new kitchens in Thanisandra in the north and Kudlu Gate in the east. We are aiming to cover 75% of Bangalore with a target of reaching 12,000 subscriptions by the end of the academic year 2018,†said Sanjay Rao, co-founder of the startup.
The startup provides healthy vegetarian meals specially designed by nutritionists that are balanced and portioned as per the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). The meal boxes are delivered to the schools directly, 30 minutes before their breakfast/lunch/snack time.
Currently, MonkeyBox has close to 2,000 subscribers for meal boxes between the age group of 3 to 18 years old. The company also delivers to daycare and Montessori schools for children in the group of 1-3 years. It has also partnered with local farms and distributors for supplying fresh ingredients for the meals.
In December last year, the company had raised an undisclosed amount in seed investment from Blume Ventures and a clutch of high net worth individuals.
“MonkeyBox has been providing nutritious, fresh and tasty food for school kids delivered at schools that results in a balanced-diet for kids while they relish tasty food. Their very high subscriptions are an indication of a parent’s preference for this as a dependable alternative to home-cooked food,†said Ashish Fafadia, chief financial officer at Blume Ventures.
MonkeyBox was founded in 2015 by Rao and Sandeep KN. In 2006, Rao and Sandeep also launched a sports analytics platform, Sporting Minds, which was also backed by Blume Ventures. The startup shut shop in 2012.
In May this year, MonkeyBox had acquired Delhi-based cold-pressed juice manufacturer and delivery firm RawKing.
Other deals in the nutritious eating segment include HealthSutra, a Hyderabad-based health food maker, which raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding from social venture fund Ankur Capital and Hyderabad Angels in May this year.
Former Flipkart executives Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori launched health and fitness platform Curefit in May this year. It secured $3 million (Rs 19.2 crore) from Ratan Tata’s UC-RNT Fund at the time of its launch. Among its three offerings, the platform has one called Eat.fit, which is centred around healthy and nutritious food.
Another app-based healthy meals delivery startup, First Eat, which is run by FE Food Tech Pvt Ltd, had raised $200,000 in seed investment from an undisclosed serial investor in February 2016.