20 THINGS ABOUT

HOW INDIA EATS

 GLOBAL CUISINE CAME TO INDIA
AND GUESS WHAT?

● …PANEER HAS FOUND ITS WAY INTO PIZZAS AND SUSHI!

● Big Mac Maharaja Mac!

● 70% of McDonald's India’s menu has food options with a

native twist

Source: McDonald’s, Dominos for images 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 02
 EVEN THEN, TOP PERFORMERS IN FOOD DELIVERY ARE NOT
PIZZA OR BURGER, BUT BIRYANI AND DOSA!

A quick comparison on Zomato Trends shows Indian

dishes have higher demand than foreign ones
120
TRENDING DISHES IN INDIA
100
01 Chicken Biryani

80
02 Chaat

60
03 Sandwich

40
04 Chicken Starters

20 05 Dosa

0 Value of 100 represents the highest order volume dish in the region
Chicken Chicken Veg Samosa Kachori Cookies
Biryani Burger Sandwich
THE TOP ITEMS ORDERED ON SWIGGY ARE BIRYANI, DOSA, FRIED RICE,
PANEER, NAAN, AND CHAAT 😋

Source: Zomato Trends, Swiggy 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 03

 INDIANS DON’T GO TO PUBS,
THEY GO FOR AN EVENING
‘BREAKFAST’
● India has a unique meal-time category – the “evening
snack” dominated by samosas, chaat and batter fried
'Bhajias' – definitely not by healthy options!

● Hanging out with work friends is not at a pub post work but
usually over chai samosa in the evening, i.e. 'second
breakfast'

Source: Times of India, Reddit 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 04

 FOR SNACKING, INDIA PREFERS
FRIED OVER BAKED

● Culturally, being able to “fry” in ghee was a sign of wealth/

prestige

● Signature dishes (sweet and savory) of most states in India are

fried
BONDED BY
● Roasting and steaming are far more popular vs baking given BONDA AND
that its cheaper to do BOONDI

Source: Tasteatlas.com 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 05

 FEEDING 1.4 BN? STAND
AND DELIVER!
● Most of working India eats a quick, nutritious roadside
meal standing up

● Cutlery? Leaf/paper and hands

● Form factor of food optimized for eating while standing

Source: Twitter, Business Today 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 06

 INDIAN MENUS ARE AS COMPLEX AS …. INDIA
HALDIRAM’S MENU vs CHIPOTLE’S ENTIRE MENU IN THE US

● Mom, Dad, Grandparents and Kids eat different cuisines when they go out but they all eat together, since eating out in India is a social activity
● Indian menus have to appeal to a wide range of preferences and that’s why our menus are the size of small books

Source: Zomato, Yelp 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 07

 IS INDIA A VEGETARIAN COUNTRY?
AS INCOMES RISE, MORE ARE TURNING NON-VEGETARIAN TO ACCESS BETTER PROTEIN

AS INCOMES RISE, MORE ARE TURNING NON-VEGETARIAN TO ACCESS BETTER WHILE WE HAVE THE MOST VEGETARIANS IN THE WORLD, DESPITE
PROTEIN POPULAR BELIEF, VEGETARIANS IN INDIA ARE A MINORITY

Source: EdTimes, Statista 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 08


Tirupati Balaji distributes 100M
laddoos a year. It even has its
own Geographical Indication (GI)
tag and is on an Indian stamp!
Organised
Source: ICICI, Wikipedia, Hindustan Times, Bikaji
AS INDIANS RISE FROM POVERTY,
THE FIRST GRATIFICATION THEY
SEEK IS FROM SWEETS & SNACKS
SPLIT OF THE SWEET
MARKET IN INDIA ● The Indian sweets market is ~$7B
10%
● 90% of the market is still unorganized, with many local/
regional chains but very few national players (Haldirams,
Bikano and Bikaji)
● Did you know? 20% of sweets sold in India is Soan Papdi!
Unorganised
90%
20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 9
 On the other end, STARBUCKS
leads the K-SHAPED RECOVERY

But what exactly is Starbucks selling... is it just expensive coffee?

No! It's much more than that:

● Free wi-fi

● “Cool workspace"

● Instagram-able cups!

● Being in America :)

Source: Twitter, Starbucks 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 10

 F&B INDIA: MANY LARGE CATEGORIES; HIGH DEAL VOLUME AND
LARGE OUTCOMES
F&B HAS RAISED ~$2.2B IN THE LAST ~10 YEARS… … AND THE SPACE HAS SEEN LARGE M&A OUTCOMES

NOTABLE ONES:
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018 $1.5B $636M $288M
2017
1,200 50
2016
40
2015 800
30
2014 20
400
2013 10
2012 0 0

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023
0 100 200 300 400

Seed Early Late + PE Acquisition value $M No. of M&A (RHS)

Source: Tracxn 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 11

 PE FUNDS AND VC FUNDS HAVE SEEN THE RESTAURANT
MARKET DIFFERENTLY…
CRAZY IDEAS ARE MOSTLY ONLINE AND GET EARLY VC CHEQUES OFFLINE BUSINESSES HAVE DELIVERED MORE OFTEN, ATTRACT EARLY PE

ODDS IN FOODTECH ARE NOT GREAT … BUT THE LARGE OUTCOMES COME FROM CRAZY IDEAS

2-sided marketplace, winner-take-all market,

economics of low AOV, intense ops

Source: Tracxn, Economic Times 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 12

 FOODTECH WENT THROUGH A LOT
AND ITS NOT OVER YET…
FOODTECH HAS RAISED ~$8B, MOST OF IT IN THE LAST 5 YEARS… … THIS SPACE HAS A LARGE COHORT OF ALSO-RANS

FUNDING IN $M

… AND WILL IT GET DISRUPTED BY ONDC?

SUPER
+ APP + LOGISTICS = ?

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Source: Tracxn 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 13

 OUR FOOD DELIVERY IS UNDER- More than 2/3rd of spending in food services in India is in
unorganized stalls/kiosks, etc
PENETRATED AND MAY REMAIN SO...
SPEND ON FOOD SERVICES BY CATEGORY (2019)
120%

7M 100%
restauran ~150k, or 5% on Zomato
ts in India 80%

60%

40%

20%

1M 0%
restaurants ~450k, or 45% on Doordash India China Japan Indones ia Thailand Brazil Germany USA Kore a

in USA
Caf es/Bars & Full Service Restau ran ts Limited-Service Restaurants Street Stalls/Kiosks & others

Source: BQ Prime, Goldman Sachs 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 14

 (‘000) (M)
AVERAGE MONTHLY NUMBERS FOR ZOMATO
800 18
600
400
17
16
VOLUME-GROWTH SLOWS;
200
0
15
14
DIALING DOWN LOSS-MAKING
ORDERS
Q4FY22 Q1FY23 Q2FY23 Q3FY23 Q4FY23 Q1FY24

Act ive restaurants Act ive delivery partners Transacting customers (mn) - RHS

Plateauing metrics?
ORDER FREQUENCY MONTH
3.4
Most of Urban middle white collar is already ordering online
3.3
3.2
3.1
Incremental growth has to come from upward mobility
3
2.9
2.8
Because our order frequency is comparable to global peers
2.7
2.6
2.5
Is delivery needed beyond big cities?
Deliveroo Meituan Zomato Justeat Takeaway

Source: Zomato, Motilal Oswal 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 15

 THE AVERAGE WHITE-COLLAR INDIAN DOESN’T MAKE
ENOUGH TO GET HER FOOD DELIVERED ON THE TABLE
… THEREFORE, 90%+ EAT AT HOME INSTEAD OF ORDERING IN

India China USA

Restaurant food Home cooked food

Source: Motilal Oswal, Moneycontrol 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 16

 120

100
WHAT IS YOUR LUNCH
80
BUDGET?
60

40
31.1 01 Food delivery AOV is 1/6th of DoorDash (the median
30.4 30.2
AOV on food delivery in India is likely lower)
20
5.3 7.6

0
02 Since order frequency is broadly at par with global
Zomato Deliveroo Just Eat Doordash Meituan
peers, India GMV is compressed
GMV FY22 ($ B) AOV ($)

Source: Zomato Annual Report, Motilal Oswal 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 17
 LOWEST AOV MEETS HIGHEST TAKE TAKE RATES OF GLOBAL FOOD DELIVERY
RATE; RESTAURANTS FIND WAYS... PLATFORMS
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
Take rates for Zomato/ Swiggy are at par with global peers 0%
so there isn’t room for increase

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Restaurants are raising prices to compensate

m
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Swiggy/ Zomato are adding various “fees” to turn profitable

Source: BQ Prime, Goldman Sachs 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 18

 HOME COOKS ARE AS
EXPENSIVE AS GETTING
DELIVERY.
YET YOU CAN GET A FULL
MEAL FOR ~ $1

NO STARTUP OFFERS A $1 MEAL YET!

Source: YouTube 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 19

 MAKE IN INDIA SOLUTIONS– WHICH PARTS ARE INVESTIBLE?
FOOD PLANT-BASED MEAT PACKAGING SUSTAINABLE DELIVERY GREENER WITH EVS AND DRONES

MEITUAN’S DRONE FOR FOOD DELIVERY

Source: YouTube ThePackHub, McDonalds 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 20

 TIME FOR HARDWARE TO CATCH UP?
INTEGRATION OF AI IN RESTAURANTS… … AND IN THE HOME KITCHEN

Robots can create customizes cuisines Autonomous food delivery

using instructions vehicle

On-premise dining waiter robots

delivery food order to Robot making an espresso Smart coffee maker Kitchen assistant
restaurant patron

Source: Forbes, Google images, Twitter, ottonomy.io, Techcrunch 20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS 21
 INDIA QUOTIENT: EARLY STAGE SPECIALISTS

We love new categories that are unique to India

We invested in Sharechat when ‘Indian Social’ was not even a category.

We did the same thing in fintech with Lendingkart, and with software plays like Vyapar.

We hope this compilation of insights will spark the imagination of founders who are building for India.

It’s never too early for us to invest. We prefer demos over decks, but an email will do just fine.

Write to us: letstalk@indiaquotient.in

Great insight comes from seeing something

as odd and finding out why.
-PHILIP KOTLER

20 THINGS ABOUT HOW INDIA EATS