BENGALURU:Annapoorne Khadya’ is an online startup which provides a platform for homemakers to earn money from their homes by preparing food in their kitchens. 35-year-old CK Naveena, a software engineer, who runs an IT company by name Karthavya IT Solutions Private Limited, has launched this startup.
There is an interesting story behind how Annapoorna Khadya started. A few months back, Naveena had gone out for lunch and he was not comfortable with the hotels in his neighbourhood. That's when the idea of delivering home food at people’s doorstep came to him. He also runs an NGO which operates in villages, and it suddenly occurred to him that several women in the village are excellent cooks and he could provide them with a platform to engage in productive work.
Later, Naveena did a random check to know the demand for homemade food and invited interested women to cook food and earn a livelihood. Currently, eight homemakers have tied up with Annapoorne. Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian items can be ordered through the platform, and pure vegetarians can order the food from the person who cooks only vegetarian food.
Vanaja, a housewife from Srirampura says: "The startup is operating for the past six months, and was officially launched in July. I prepare food and my son delivers food to the customers. Through ‘Annapoorne Khadya’, we are able to reach out to new people and cater services to them. At present, we are earning upto `6,000 per month through this platform. If our food is liked by customers, it will definitely help us earn a good living in days to come, and we are looking forward to that."
"We are really happy to get in touch with Annapoorne Khadya. We found this application to be very useful and the service provided is good and convenient for us. The taste of the food is awesome and we feel we are having food prepared at home,” adds V Jayalakshmi, a resident of Ramakrishna Nagara.
Naveena says: "I feel Annapoorne Khadya has a huge potential. With increasing demand for home-cooked food and with limited home delivers, we have good scope in the market. I receive phone calls even from remote villages to deliver food."
Naveena plans on expanding the services to Begaluru and other cities in the coming days, he says, "There are many women who have told us that they are ready to come and cook if a suitable kitchen is provided to them. We want to go slowly and build a good and sustainable business model. I have plans to bring more homemakers and enable them to earn through our platform and at the same time provide good quality food to the customers."
Some of them might be missing the festival food items when they are away from home and to address this they will soon be taking orders for festival food items like Kajjaya, Holige and the likes.To cater to the needs of the elderly who do not use smartphones or computer, they accept orders through the phone also. The customer can book orders either through homemakers or directly on the online portal. The orders can be placed their app in Android and iOS, and also through the website www.annapoorne.com.