THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At the beginning of 2020, when people were confined indoors due to the pandemic and lockdown, Bijesh B K, Vijai Raj and Rahul Krishnan brought Foodro to Kochi — their startup that would deliver grocery, ready-to-eat products, personal care and hygiene essentials to customers’ doorstep. What started with three partners and a delivery boy serving a maximum of five orders a day has become a brand with Rs 50 lakh profit, 42 staff members and 250 orders a day in just a year. At the peak of the pandemic last year, they had 750-800 orders a day!
Looking back at the eventful year, Bijesh says, “When we came up with the idea of an online grocery application in 2016. We planned to create apps for supermarkets at affordable rates. But there were no takers for the idea, we decided to launch our service.”
On August 7, 2017, Foodro was launched. It took a week to get their first order placed. For the next year, Foodro couldn’t make any profit. “We have had our share of failures. Foodro is our seventh startup. The earlier ones didn’t take off as expected. In January 2019, we decided to launch a Foodro supermarket in Kochi with initial funding of Rs 25 lakh. The plan was a hyperlocal model of source aggregator – collecting quality products specific to an area and delivering to the clients. With our supermarket launched at Palarivattom, our orders increased to as much as 15 a day,” recalls Bijesh.
One-stop-shop
The trio has finally built a reliable business model. “We source grocery, pulses and vegetables from various companies and distributors in Pollachi and Mettupalayam. We also have our brand of 44 grocery items and cleaning products. Our target is to launch 180 products and become a leading player in the FMCG sector.”
One of their most interesting concepts is the idea of ‘growing and letting grow’. Through this, they make investments in various food startups to ensure the quality of products and by providing software franchise support to budding entrepreneurs. Bijesh explains, “We provide application software support to supermarkets anywhere in the world. The service will showcase our branded products along with theirs, ensuring mutual benefit.
Be it a small grocery shop in an idyllic town in Kerala or a supermarket chain in Singapore, we can provide software support in less than two hours.” Foodro is available in Chennai now too, and will reach Bengaluru in six months.