Startups in the food tech space have been feeling the heat for some time. This might be due to the origin of a long term of balloon bursts and job losses in the sector. It is not a simple chore to set up a startup and run it for more than a year overwhelming all the impediments. We bring you the overview of the financial performance of an Indian Startup company that provides good knowledge of the companies and the ecosystem in general. Here is an Indian Startup company – TinyOwl which had recently completed its one year of operations in June this year. Have a look at the journey of this startup including the financial performance in FY 2014-15.
TinyOwl is an Indian Startup company which had recently completed its one year of operations in the month of June this year. TinyOwl is a Mumbai-based Food Ordering and Delivery company which claims to have 10,000 restaurants on board and receives 7,000 orders per day. Here is the financial overview of this Indian Startup.
About TinyOwl
TinyOwl was launched in 2014 as a food ordering and delivery company. TinyOwl is owned by TinyOwl Technology Private Limited which was co-founded by five IIT graduates:
- Harsh Vardhan Mandad
- Gaurav Chowdhary
- Saurab Goyal
- Tanuj Khandelwal
- Shikhar Paliwal
TinyOwl initially came across as one of the most promising startups in the country. TinyOwl actually has two products – one is the TinyOwl app which allow its users to order food from nearby restaurants. The second model is called TinyOwl homemade for ordering food from local chefs which is launched in Bangalore two months ago. The company is backed by Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners, the startup has raised $27 million so far.
Financial Performance of TinyOwl
TinyOwl has successfully completed its first year of operations and entered into its second year of operations. In the Financial Year 2014-15, the company has reported Revenue from its operations as INR 24,000. The Total Revenue of the company stands at INR 44 lacs, the source for the remaining income being the interest received on VC funds parked as fixed deposits by the company.
However, the total Expenses acquired by the Company were INR 25.5 Crores. Yet, it has closed its financial year with a huge loss of nearly INR 25 Crores. The major expense incurred by the company during this period was Employee Expense at INR 12 Crores. The ruin of the company commenced earlier in September when it decided to cut down over 100 Employees.
With two of the most leading names in the food space resorting to mass-firing, many in the industry assumed that this could be the demise of the food tech vertical which was once prospering with every other investor attempting to generate money from this segment.
Funding Received by TinyOwl
Many different news sources on the internet show that the company had received a funding of USD 28 million (approx. INR 180 Crores) along with USD 7.7 million in October 2015. There are documents filed with the Registrar of Companies which betokens that they have received total funding of INR 100 Crores in three rounds from its existing investors such as Sequoia Capital, Nexus Ventures, and Matrix Partners. Documents of the latest round (October 2015) have not been filed yet. The recent funding came across as the saving factor for the company as it would fetch another 12 months of runtime for the startup,
Here are the details of Funding:
| Date | Name of Investor | Amount Invested (in INR) |
| July, 2014 | Sequoia Capital | 7.5 Crore |
| Nexus Venture | 7.5 Crore | |
| January, 2015 | Sequoia Capital | 6.3 Crore |
| Nexus Ventures | 6.3 Crore | |
| March, 2015 | Matrix Partners | 39.9 Crore |
| Nexus Venture | 16.2 Crore | |
| Sequoia Capital | 16.2 Crore |
TinyOwl seems to be in a consolidation phase due to a surge in food tech and delivery startups over the past couple of years. Recent cases of shut shops and layoffs also indicate that the company is now in a segment where it is trying to strengthen itself.
While, Tiny Owl has been one of the front-runners in the segment so far, it persists to be seen how well they deal this difficult phase and become financially sustainable. They have some of the top VCs’ money backing them up in the endeavor. Hope the company regains its position serving a number of customers thereby generates more income.