Rajasthan-based Rays Culinary Delights Pvt. Ltd, which runs packaged food products startup Sattviko, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a bunch of angel investors, a company statement said.
The company will use the money to expand its reach across the country. Sattviko claims to have presence in 10 major cities in India and across all large retailers like BigBazaar, More, Hypercity, Easyday, Spar, Metro, etc.
The investors who participated in this round include Ashish Gupta, founder of early-stage venture capital firm Helion Ventures and Sunil Chandiramani, the former India head at consulting firm EY Advisory and other senior private equity professionals, the statement added.
"Our next step is to initiate our Dubai and US operations. Over time, we will endeavour to penetrate across geographies and borders," said Prasoon Gupta, co-founder of Sattviko.
Founded in 2013 by IIT Roorkee graduates Gupta and Ankush Sharma, Sattviko sells healthy Indian snacks such as khakhra chips, paan raisins, gur-chana, ajwaini flax seeds, etc. online as well as through stores in malls in Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai.
When the company first launched operations, it used to run a quick service restaurant, offering Sattvik food, made without onion and garlic. It served continental, Indian and Mexican meals, salads, munchies, desserts and beverages and had also introduced a delivery service in February 2015. However, Sattviko was unable to scale the restaurant business and is paring it down. It will now only focus on its fast-moving consumer goods business of packaged snacks.
In 2015, it raised $115,000 from investors like CommonFloor co-founder Sumit Jain, Xerox India’s MD Rajat Jain and Samsung’s Network Business VP Sanjay Bhasin. Before that, it had raised angel investment from a group of individuals in 2014.
It raised its pre-Series A round of funding last year led by Raman Roy, chairman of National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), and other individual investors.
The company had also made a few acquisitions in the recent past. Last year, it acqui-hired Indore-based snacks company Indori Chatore and in August 2017, it bought outfit curation portal StylSpot.
In August 2016, it acquired Delhi-based packaged food maker FYNE Superfood for an undisclosed amount. Prior to that, it purchased food delivery startup Call A Meal for an undisclosed amount in November 2015.
Other deals
A number of firms in the broader packaged food space have raised funding in recent months.
In May, VCCircle reported that US-based private equity firm General Atlantic LLC had inked a deal to pick up a majority stake in Mumbai-based packaged food products manufacturer Capital Foods Pvt. Ltd, the maker of Ching’s Secret sauce and instant noodles.
In March, venture debt firm Alteria Capital Advisors invested in ready-to-cook food startup Fingerlix, operated by Maverix Platforms Pvt. Ltd.
In January, Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia invested Rs 152 crore ($23 million) in Southern Health Foods, which markets its products under the brand Manna Foods.
