Food Delivery
The Startup: Taste2Plate
Taste2Plate is a pioneering food-tech platform that has solved one of the most complex challenges in the logistics industry: intercity delivery of perishable specialty foods. Unlike traditional delivery apps that operate within a 10km radius, Taste2Plate allows customers to order iconic dishes from legendary restaurants in one city and have them delivered fresh to their doorstep in another city within 24 hours. Their proprietary cold-chain technology ensures that the "taste" and quality of the food remain intact during transit.
The Funding Journey with StartupLanes
Taste2Plate successfully raised its latest round of funding through the StartupLanes Angel Network. The startup's robust business model and impressive month-on-month growth caught the attention of SL’s global ecosystem of investors. StartupLanes facilitated the entire process, from initial pitching to due diligence, providing Taste2Plate not just with capital, but with a strategic gateway to a vast mentor network and partnership opportunities across the SL ecosystem.
The Pitch: Gyan Srivastava meets Dr. Shishir Gupta
The journey of Tastes2Plate (T2P) took a transformative turn when Gyan Srivastava, an IT professional who had meticulously built T2P as a bootstrapped entity from Kolkata, presented his vision to Dr. Shishir Gupta.
Gyan didn't just pitch a delivery app; he pitched a solution to the "Culinary Displacement" problem. He demonstrated how T2P had moved beyond the 10km hyperlocal delivery trap by creating a "Hub and Spoke" logistics model that treated food as high-value, time-sensitive cargo. During the pitch, Gyan showcased the proprietary packaging technology that allowed a Biryani from Lucknow to remain at the perfect temperature for over 24 hours without chemical intervention.
Why Dr. Shishir Gupta Backed Tastes2Plate
Dr. Shishir Gupta, known for identifying startups with high unit economics and scalable "moats," saw immediate value in Gyan’s proposition. There were three specific reasons why Dr. Gupta believed this problem had to be addressed:
The Emotional Economy: Dr. Gupta recognized that for millions of Indians living in metros, the connection to their "home taste" is emotional. He saw T2P not just as a logistics company, but as a bridge for the Indian Diaspora within the country.
Solving the Cold-Chain Gap: While many companies attempted intercity shipping, most failed at the "last mile" or ruined the food's texture. Dr. Gupta was impressed by T2P’s zero-waste logistics model which solved the perishable nature of cooked food—a problem most VCs considered "too difficult."
The "Vocal for Local" Scalability: Dr. Gupta saw T2P as a platform that empowers legendary local restaurants (SMEs) to become national brands without opening new branches, aligning perfectly with the StartupLanes mission of fostering home-grown innovation.
The Partnership and Growth
After the pitch, StartupLanes didn't just provide capital; they integrated T2P into a global ecosystem. With Pankaj Bajaj coming on board as Co-Founder & CFO to streamline the financial scaling, the company was prepared for the StartupLanes Angel Network round.
The funding provided by StartupLanes allowed T2P to expand its footprint from a regional experiment into a national service, now serving iconic delicacies to customers across all major Indian metros.