The funding will be used for geographic expansion, to consolidate its presence in existing markets, and to invest in customer acquisition and brand building

Charcoal Eats, a tech-enabled quick service restaurant (QSR) based in Mumbai, today announced it has raised INR 5 crore (US$742,000) in pre-Series A round of funding from a host of high net-worth individuals, including Rajesh Ramanathan, Head (Global Growth) at Mondelez International; and Kush Verma of Asoka Capital.

Sanjay Bhandarkar of Rothschild, Amit Gupta of New Quest Capital Partners, Vishesh Shrivastav of Temasek; Sachin Khivasara of Bouyant Capital; and Chetan Mehrotra also co-invested in the round.

With this round, the total funds raised by Charcoal Eats till date has touched INR 12 crore (US$1.78 million).

The funding will be used for geographic expansion, to consolidate its presence in existing markets, and to invest in customer acquisition and brand building.

Anurag Mehrotra, Co-founder and CEO of Charcoal Eats, said: “We have successfully achieved consistency and scalability in the Indian QSR segment which are two major challenges in this space. Our strong product focus enabled by in-house technology is at the heart of our business. In the last two years, we have served over half a million customers and enjoy a high customer satisfaction, resulting in repeat business of over 50 per cent.”

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Charcoal Eats was co-founded in September 2015 by Anurag Mehrotra (CEO), Krishnakant Thakur (COO), Gautam Singh (CTO) and Mohammed Bhol (CPO). The firm offers all-day food options across snack and meal times at various price points. The offerings include a array of biryanis, rolls, loaded fries, starters, puff pizzas, beverages and desserts.

In addition to walking in to the outlets, customers can access Charcoal Eats directly via its app, website or customer care number. Charcoal Eats is also available on all leading food platforms such as Zomato, Swiggy, Foodpanda, and Dine Out.

The startup currently operates 22 outlets across six Indian cities — Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Delhi-NCR, Nashik. By December 2018, Charcoal Eats is targeting to have 60-plus outlets spread across 10 cities.

The market for chain restaurants including cafes and QSR is expected to grow at 20 per cent a year to reach US$8 billion by 2021, a recent report by the India Food Services Report by National Restaurant Association of India said.

 

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