Adurcup, a one-of-its-kind online procurement platform, has raised growth capital from strategic corporate investors and well-known family offices. This is one of the few instances where the corporate sector and family office investments are involved. Most start-ups typically receive funds from angel investors at an early growth stage. The credibility of the start-up, and a belief in its business viability, are factors that corporates usually use to evaluate a business. As a result of that, traditionally so far, few have invested in this space in India, while this phenomenon is steadily picking up. However, portfolio start-ups of GHV Accelerator like AdUrCup bring a level of sanctity because of the rigorous evaluation before selection into the portfolio and that results in the belief and investment from corporate and family offices. Adurcup plans to raise a total of USD 500K, and they have already closed 65% of the round.
Some of the other portfolio start-ups of GHV Accelerator that have received the next round of funding recently are MyTaxiIndia, that received a strategic investment from Japan Taxi and ZGC Global, an investor from Dubai; FitMeIn, that received a strategic investment from Finc (Japan), Pickmylaundry, invested and empowered by HUL Executive Kedar Lele, also recently acquired OneClickwash; Istyleyou, invested and empowered by Rannvijay Singh.
GHV has emerged as a preferred ecosystem for family offices and corporates to invest in Startup ventures at Pre Series A and Series A stages.
Adurcup started its journey by providing solutions for the food packaging procurement problem of QSRs and then evolved to the level of catering to the procurement needs of 1000 + restaurants in more than 6 categories across Delhi NCR. With metrics like revenue, unit economics and number of profitable categories as priority, Adurcup is chasing sustainable growth. The company has already become profitable in categories like food packaging, pest control services and is building a profitable venture block by block.
Said Vikram Upadhyaya, Accelerator Evangelist at GHV Accelerator, “One of the most scalable businesses in the F&B sector, and that too on the procurement side. A highly mentorable team; that has done their homework well.”
Adurcup has an impact on the dining experience of more than 2 million people eating out per month. It does more than 200 services per month and sells more than 1.5 million units per month across its product categories. They have been able to generate value for their customers by making restaurant procurements smarter and have created their own metric called ‘PES’ (Procurement Efficiency Score) to monitor the procurement efficiency of a restaurant.
According to Kushang, CoFounder of Adurcup, “We had the first-mover advantage and cracked this tough HoReCa (Hotels, Restaurant, Catering) space that no one else could command; and it’s a given that only fundamentally strong businesses can scale. In the last 180 days we have grown consistently focusing on increasing adoption rate by restaurants to order online.The current fund raise will help us scale, bring more process innovations and will help us improve our product with profitability being the first milestone. We are taking each quarter as a separate challenge and are achieving milestones each quarter. According to the latest report by NRAI, the top 75 cities across India have 1,50,000 - 1,75,000 restaurants in the organized segment. We aim to reach USD 500Mn in revenues in the next 4-5 years, by tapping just 1% of the total opportunity.
Our choice of investors has always been strategic, and we always prefer value over money, and that has been the case in this round as well. Thanks to all our investors for embedding their trust in us.”
Adurcup is working towards a mission to improve the average PES of the restaurant industry by 20% in the coming financial year. The PES of a restaurant powered by AdUrCup is at least 50% better than the current PES.
AdUrCup’s revenues are driven by their suppliers, since they are empowering more and more small scale suppliers/manufacturers/service providers to extend their services to restaurants by helping them in key components of their business like logistics, inventory management, payment collection and working capital.
Usage of funds:The funds that have been secured will be used for building stronger unit economics by bringing efficiencies in the current supply chain processes using technology. AdUrCup plans to introduce more innovation in their products and services keeping profitability in mind. The company is looking to expand its operations in Jaipur, Lucknow and Chandigarh and is looking to add three more verticals (kitchen appliances, vegetables and packaged food) this year; thereby looking to become a one-stop shop for all major restaurant supplies needs.
The overall plan is to reach 10,000 unique orders a month by the end of this financial year, impacting more than 10 million dining out experiences. The focus will also be on working with more than 2000+ SME’s and generating new jobs in the sector. The company plans to launch Adurcup Prime for restaurants capturing all their procurement needs in one place; this service is expected to be launched by the end of the coming quarter.
