Chennai-based digital home cooking startup Cookd has raised $600,000 in a pre-Seed funding round by Konglo Ventures, Kerala Angel Network, and other prominent angels from the food industry, the company said in a statement.
The company, which helps users in the planning of recipes and meals, and buying groceries, is looking to expand its footprint in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) segment, through its online application Cookd. The company is also looking at launching new-generation food products in the D2C segment, it said.
“The unorganised food sector encompasses 65% of India's food industry at an estimated $37 billion. The home cooking segment has a larger share of the pie as opposed to ordering in or eating out. Recipes are one of the most searched categories online, and we started by creating easy-to-replicate recipe videos for social media,” said Vinod Jose, lead investor, Konglo Ventures.
The company has been backed by strategic investors like Aju Jacob of Synthite Industries, Geemon Korah of Kancor Ingredients Ltd. Kancor Ingredients and Synthite Industries are among market leaders in spice extraction. Indian actress, Keerthy Suresh, and actor Kathir have also invested in the company along with Vineet Kumar, chief executive officer of Native, a company that was acquired by Procter & Gamble.
“We are building one of the largest home-cooking brands, based on deep insights gathered from our fast-growing community of home cooks. Our new range of Cookd products will help our users replicate their favorite Cookd dishes faster and more accurately,” said Aathitiyan, founder and chief executive officer, Cookd.
The COVID-induced lockdowns had locked millions of Indians indoors and consequently, demand for home-cooked food increased fourfold in 2021, Cookd said, quoting a report by Dineout, a restaurant services and reservation platform owned by Times Internet.
Cookd, founded in 2020, claims to host nearly 1,000 recipes on its online application. The company has an online footprint of more than 1.5 million followers across all social media platforms, it said. Cookd also claims to have over 31 million views across platforms with more than 15 million minutes of content watched every month.
