-B Swaminathan (cbedit@imaws.org)
Ahmedabad: India’s leading point-of-sale manufacturer Petpooja had recently announced it had raised $4.5 million in a funding round led by Aroa Ventures. The funding is expected to give them additional firepower to build out a strong team to keep executing the way we always have. It is also expected to help them build a stronger moat around the product and brings them an inch closer to becoming the Operating System for SMBs.
‘Petpooja’ currently powers more than 25 Thousand outlets across India, UAE, and Africa, with over 1.5 Mn daily orders logged on the platform recording an annualized GMV of $2.5 Bn. Its full-stack suite allows restaurateurs to manage complete operations using a single software. The startup plans to use the funding to bring more than 1.5 lakh outlets over the next two years on the platform, expand its reach in the Middle East and African regions, and leverage its network effects to allow its restaurants to band together for bulk purchases of ingredients and equipment.
Speaking exclusively to ChefBharath.com, Parthiv Patel, one of the two founders of the Ahmedabad-based start up, said , “Tech adoption in the F&B industry is undergoing a significant uptick. The pandemic did 2 things: it forced SMB owners to become tech-friendly in order to remotely manage operations. Secondly, with the rise of online ordering, margins came under pressure so tech became even more imperative to increase traceability, efficiency and protect against wastage and pilferage.”
According to him, the company thrives on two major aspects- simplicity and 24×7 support. ” Our core product philosophy is based around simplicity. The staff at most independent restaurants is not highly skilled and there is high turnover in the industry. It is imperative that the product is simple to allow the staff to enter data. All business owners want data analytics and insights but the first step is entering the correct data.” Thus, by focusing on simplicity, ‘Pet Pooja’ ensures that all necessary data gets captured at the point of sale. Since the restaurant industry itself is very demanding in terms of operational hours, PoS is a mission-critical product. “If the PoS stops working, your restaurant is essentially shut. And we get this. Our 24×7 support team is always available on call, be it 4 am in the morning or the night of Diwali, restaurant owners can pick up the call and have their problem resolved in under 20 minutes. We do not believe in “We will reply to this email in 24 hours” philosophy, we understand how crucial support is to SMBs.”, Parthiv added.
Expansion plans:
On his expansion plans, Pet Pooja said, “The new funding will help us to double down on our growth by allowing us to expand to 1.5 lac outlets. It will also allow us to put more energy behind adjacent verticals like the Supplier’s Hub (a B2B marketplace for restaurant supplies) as well as allowing us to expand geographically.”
Legally titled as Prayosha Food Services Pvt. Ltd., Petpooja handles all core tasks of a restaurant – billing, KOT (Kitchen Order Token), inventory and stock, raw materials and recipe, menu with variations and add-one as well as reporting and advanced analytics. Starting out in 2011, in the first avatar, Petpooja was a food delivery platform for Corporates which re-incarnated to the current avatar of Pet Pooja which is a coherent Restaurant Management software.
Best Wishes, Team Pet Pooja
