Food technology start-up YuMist raises Rs 6.2 crore from VC firm Orios Venture Partners

NEW DELHI: Food technology and delivery start-up YuMist has raised about Rs 6.2 crore ($1 million) from venture capital firm Orios Venture Partners, as investors look to participate in the nascent space increasingly been seen as the next disruptive segment.
Three-month-old Gurgaon-based YuMist has been founded by Alok Jain, former chief marketing officer of online restaurant search platform Zomato, will use proceeds to further build its technology platform, expand services and towards marketing.

“There are no national players in this space, and that too, in a country which has one of the largest food and beverages markets globally,” said Jain. The start-up plans to cover all of Gurgaon and the National Capital Region by the end-2015 and to enter the Metros by early 2016.

The early efforts in the space have already caught the attention of India’s top venture capital firms, such as SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Matrix Partners, with a number of deals believed to be on the verge of closing over the next few months.



The YuMist model allows consumers to order food on demand through the venture’s mobile app, and the company, via its logistics and supply chain-focused technology platform, will deliver food within 30 minutes or less.

“We have a centralised kitchen that can serve an entire city. All our recipes undergo rigorous testing, and through use of food science, we can reproduce the best quality food, using the best ingredients, in the shortest time possible,” said Abhimanyu Maheshwari, co-founder and chief operating officer at YuMist.

Internet-first restaurants do not have any retail presence and they serve limited locations through a central kitchen. There are different models, though, with start-ups such as Yumist and India Quotient-backed Frsh employing their own chefs with pre-determined menus, while others like Holachef and Eatlo serve as a marketplace for chefs. The distribution models range from building assembly kitchens, distribution centres or a centralised kitchen.

“The space is large, and YuMist understands the value proposition the end consumer is looking for. The quality YuMist offered was extremely appealing to us,” said Sumir Verma, venture partner at Orios Venture Partners.

The YuMist investment is the latest in a series of transactions made by Orios over the last few months. Founded by Rehan Yar Khan, one of the country’s storied angel investors, the $50-million VC fund has hit the ground running, investing in a number of ventures across the consumer internet and technology sectors.