The market of vending machines in India is expected to witness substantial growth of 14.9% CAGR during 2020-2026, Prerna Kalra, co-founder and CEO of Daalchini Technologies, said at an event.
“With around 40 thousand hospitals, 555 thousand workplaces, 113 thousand public places (Metro, Railway stations, etc.), 249 thousand factories, 220 thousand ATM locations, 630 thousand residential (apartments, PGs, hostels) it is a severely under-tapped market space and has about more than 6 million possible locations to install vending machines across the country,” Kalra said.
Daalchini Technologies provides instant, home-cooked food, snacks, ready-to-eat products, and beverages to corporate employees through IoT-enabled ‘phygital’ (physical+digital) vending machines.
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The webinar on the role & importance of vending machines in the post-pandemic world deliberated on vending machines as a solution to provide safe and hygienic food in a post-pandemic world, lack of human intervention and cashless payments which are changing corporate cafeterias, use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the food industry, and the challenges for the companies to provide their employees with general food facilities in the new reality.
“The increase in organized retailing across malls and multiplexes, BPOs, IT, and ITES industries in India will fuel demand for vending machines. Additionally, people being more cautious towards social distancing and safety post-pandemic, the increased use of vending machines in public infrastructure and offices would further drive the demand for India’s vending machine market over the coming years,” Kalra said.
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Kalra said that even before the pandemic began, the company’s focus was on building smart vending machines with healthy food products. The pandemic gave this initiative a big push. “And, now that offices are reopening, we are seeing a surge in demand from companies across the country. Vending Machines are changing the landscape of corporate cafeterias and playing an important role in ensuring safe and hygienic foods in this post-pandemic era, to say the least.”
Daalchini already has above 700 smart stores in 15 cities and more than 1.6 lakh monthly-active-users. It also has over 200 franchises and more than 65 brands and cloud kitchens selling on its platform. It has raised-$2.2 million funding till date and achieved positive operational EBITDA Q2 FY22. In the last financial year it posted a revenue worth $1.6 million.
