Chennai-based start-up Cookr has raised $1 million (Rs 8.25 crore) in a pre-seed funding round led by angel investors.
The company plans to add more features to its platform and also eyes hiring skilled staff to expand its team. Additionally, it is planning to expand services across states beyond Tamil Nadu.
The food tech start-up is currently present in cities like Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Hosur, Chidambaram, Thanjavur, Salem, Vellore, and Kumbakonam. It is aiming to start operations in Puducherry.
Founded in 2022 by Praba Santhanakrishnana, Saravanakumar Kandasamy and Nirmalkumar Muthu, the company claims to offer home-cooked foods to its customers. It currently works with 500 cooks and also aims to hire 2,00,000 home cooks in the next five years.
Talking about the latest development, co-founder Prabha Santhanakrishnan, said, “We are thrilled to have secured this pre-seed investment, which will allow us to bring our vision to life and make a real impact in the lives of home cooks and solve the access to healthy food through tech. We see that there is a huge demand for healthy home-made food and long shelf-life food products, and we are excited to offer a solution that will cater to this rapidly growing market.”
Addressing the investment, Arun Viswanathan, the software development manager, at Amazon, USA, added, “I am excited to partner with Cookr and support their mission to make healthy eating accessible and convenient in India. The food technology industry in India is ripe for disruption, and Cookr’s innovative approach to providing healthy alternatives to traditional restaurant-delivered meals is exactly what the market needs. I look forward to working with the Cookr team and watching them grow and succeed.”