The growth of Food tech into a billion dollar sector by 2019

The Indian food technology sector has seen a very low point in the last year and a half. It saw an extremely low growth in 2016 and a low amount of investments across the sector. According to a report, this sector has had a trial by fire and is expected to emerge stronger than before. The last two years saw a demise of about 20 companies due to a variety of reasons. The sector is now thriving and is making a strong impact on the India market. The food tech sector is expected to become a billion dollar industry in the next two years. Many players across the Industry have seen new investments and an increase in the market in terms of food delivery and internet kitchens. 

An investment of almost 700 million USD has been infused in the sector since Feb 2017. With the recent funding of food discovery and delivery apps, the experts believe this sector is here to stay and thrive. The sector’s consolidation might be over and the remaining players are here to stay. Recently, Swiggyraised a funding of 80 million USD. It has 12000 partner restaurants across eight cities and has an expansion drive planned.

Further, UberEats is now planning a pan India service. It is currently available in Mumbai only. The profitability of Zomato has also gone up by 100% on a year on year. There was indeed a blood  bath in the market, but the company focused on the advertisement aspect and they had aggressive plans to expand the market. About a month back, the online food delivery platform, Foodpanda bagged an investment of INR 3000 crores. It was a tough patch for Foodpanda until last year. It was merged with Delivery Hero, a German food delivery platform. It now covers restaurants across 150 cities and delivers about 70000 orders a day.

Further, Zomato raised USD 20 million from its existing investors and new investors. Experts see the market as a good investment and consider it ready for the people. The players have now gained a captive audience who are ready to pay for the services as well as open to new ideas. It took a while for the players to establish themselves in the Indian market, but it has now found a huge audience who is open to trying new concepts and open to different ideas as well.

With the back to back funding and the massive expansion plans, the various players in the food tech industry have an edge and will see an upturn in their business. The Indian market is huge and there is an enormous scope of expansion for the players. With the increasing weekly numbers, it can be rightly said that the audience is open to the food tech sector and is accepting the change in the industry.

The testing times for the sector are over and it is now open to new investors, players and audience.