Food on track By Pranbihanga Borpuzari How often have you dreaded eating poor quality food or receiving unreliable service on the Indian Railways? All this might change soon. Mealtimes on a train journey may become more palatable if Pushpinder Singh, 41, is able to make a success of his startup, Travelkhana. He has a business which provides food to railway passengers round the clock at chosen destinations. Changing lines Singh tried his hand at various entrepreneurial ventures with the aim of impacting a larger market. “There was a time when I traveled the length and breadth of India,” says Singh, CEO, Travelkhana. It was during his travels that he noticed several unaddressed aspects that went beyond ticketing. Singh’s original idea was to develop a mobile tool to track flight statuses. “Embedded in my application [the mobile tool] was a marketplace where passengers could book taxis and food on arrival, among other services. I began to explore if this feature could become a business and be taken to the next level,” he says. Singh eyed the Indian Railways and decided to offer a service where travelers could order food, taxi, medicines and other amenities on the go. And thus a business idea was born. On the right track “Three crore people travel by Indian Railways every day. The market is huge,” says Singh, adding that about one and a half crore of this traveling populace comprise of long distance travelers. “For starters, I decided to focus only on one aspect—availability of food,” he says. By end-2011, Travelkhana was launched as a startup to help train travelers order food which would be delivered to a railway platform of their choice. Singh thought it wise to test the concept. Early 2012, he identified Jaipur as a trial location and touched base with restaurants. Two restaurants agreed to participate and Singh distributed pamphlets to passengers at the station, with a scanned version of the same on a website. The idea was a great hit. Singh decided to extend the trial to Lucknow, where he tied up with a restaurant chain to handle deliveries. However, it did not work out. Express service: Pushpinder Singh (right) A step back “It was a big setback for us. However, we decided to go ahead and tied up with restaurants across 12 other locations.” Based on the experience of these locations, Singh extended services to another 30 stations and has never looked back since. In June 2012, Singh raised investment from Matteo Chiampo, an angel investor and advisor to early stage startups. “I liked the fact that there was a working proof of concept and that Pushpinder had got customer validation for his idea. I was impressed by his ability to get the business up and running with limited resources,” says Chiampo, who now acts as Chief Advisor and Strategic Investor at Travelkhana. According to Chiampo, the market for a service like Travelkhana is massive. “We think we can make the train food experience more pleasant,” he states. Some passengers like Vivek Dubey are happy with the choices offered. Dubey found Travelkhana through a Google Search before taking a train from Mumbai to Jammu in March 2013. “I travel often by train and I was randomly looking at options for ordering food. That is when I decided to try Travelkhana,” says Dubey. He ordered dinner at Kota and was happy with the quality of food, the authenticity of the Rajasthani thali and its packaging. Click to order Customers can order food either from the website, Travelkhana or through voice and Short Message Service (SMS), on a unified number. A call center operator collects basic customer details—PNR number, mobile number, customer name, vendor (restaurant) of choice, food items and mode of payment. The company recently enabled online payment options for customers as well as Cash on Delivery. Singh is also working on a mobile application for the Android OS which will be launched soon. All this data is entered on a platform which works on complex algorithms that divide each order into queues based on train running times and station location. It also enables real time tracking of trains. The menu has been designed to list food items that are generally available. Workflow indications are sent to all restaurant owners through SMS, e-mail and if needed, via a phone call. Vendor details are also sent to customers if they ask for it. Food is delivered by the restaurant or vendor. Travelkhana does not accept any deliveries. Chugging away The company delivers 500-550 meals a day and is growing at about 40-45 percent per month. Spread across 95 locations, 30 locations undertake bulk orders for 25-30 people as a means to stay economically viable, while the remaining 65 take individual orders. These locations are primarily based in the northern, central and western parts of India and Singh says‚ he now wants to take the route to South India too. According to Nikush Manchandani, owner of Tulsi Hotel in Jhansi, Travelkhana has revolutionized the way food is made available on trains. “We have got good feedback about the model from customers and the concept has been well received. Travelkhana has been able to effectively simplify and streamline the availability of food on trains and this has been their biggest selling proposition,” says Manchandani. One of the largest hotels in Jhansi, Manchandani became a restaurant partner with Travelkhana in October 2012 and delivers seven-eight orders per day on an average, including bulk orders. Travelkhana charges restaurant owners a commission of 18-20 percent on every order. The average ticket size of a meal currently stands at Rs. 300. Singh is unwilling to share revenue figures, though he mentions that the company plans to break even by the end of calendar year 2013. “Large online travel agencies want us to extend our services to buses but we do not understand the problems [there] yet. We will eventually get to it since we see a significant demand in that market too. We want Travelkhana to become the default railway platform catering only to this segment of travelers,” says Singh.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 11:32:39 +0000
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