How has Gurgaon emerged as a food-tech hub?
How has Gurgaon emerged as a food-tech hub?

Gurgaon has become the ‘hot’ destination for all the food tech start-ups. It is rising rapidly for all the industry people as now-a-days eating out and ordering food has become a regular habit of the lazy Indian customer. After Bengaluru and Mumbai, Gurgaon has emerged as the next hub for all the tech companies in India.

“Gurgaon is among the rare melting pots of cultures and backgrounds in the diversity that is India, where people from all over the country have converged upon. Its unique blend of top MNCs, corporate, start-ups and people with ever-increasing disposable incomes makes for a very vibrant community of early adopters of technology and services. This is the single-most important ingredient for any start-up ecosystem to jumpstart and flourish”, shared Abhimanyu Maheshwari, Founder & COO of Yumist.

Also, “Gurgaon is a great test bed for our cuisine and offering. We've got great traction amongst people in office areas such as Cyber City and Sector-44 where people find it convenient to eat our food at their desks or meeting rooms as a group, instead of going to an expensive dine-in option”, said Rohan Dayal, Co-Founder at Twigly.

According to Tracxn, last year a database for start-ups and private companies in the food-tech space, out of 145 companies that operate in the country, 66 were launched. December 2014 report by Tracxn says $1.2 billion has been invested last year across multiple deals in the global food tech space.

Gurgaon is consider as the best location of any business in Delhi-NCR. It is good location for networking and talent achievement. On the same note Prateek Soni, Co-founder at Foodport says, “We think Gurgaon's population is quite tech-savvy and an extremely good validator. Although Bangalore remains ahead in terms of early adopters, Gurgaon's populace is catching up fast. We understand the tastes and preferences of the typical Gurgaonite and it helps us in tailor our dishes in a way that they're appealing to them”.

Obstacles in operating

The one reason behind why Gurgaon is booming is the geographical location which makes it look attractive for both the start-ups and the investors who will later help the entrepreneurs in the funding.

There are plenty of benefits of Gurgaon for its prime location but all together there are many barriers. The most problematic issue for the food tech start-ups is the delivery. The customers and the MDs of the company have to follow up with the delivery boys from now and again. As there are many away places like old Gurgaon wherein the demand cannot be fulfil efficiently. Moreover, delivery boy are not having change with them, cannot get the address properly and also sometime the bad operations team. And this leads to delay in food delivery order.

“Delivery will always remain a significant challenge wherever one goes and in that case Gurgaon is not different. No one wants to wait for delivery, yet food-tech companies cannot have an unlimited delivery workforce. Additionally, we've seen hyperlocal delivery options fail when they are needed the most. A hybrid approach is probably the best bet as of today until on-demand hyperlocal delivery matures” pointed Dayal.

Thus, Gurgaon is certainly the biggest food-tech hub in India. It is young, metropolitan and multi-cultural demographic where people are very vibrant, foodie and also experimental towards the new formats and cuisines.

 
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