Bold Biryani

The Indian food and beverages (F&B) segment suddenly has a sprinter - the biryani! Like fast-growing segments of the F&B market such as the pizza, the biryani is a complete meal and delivery friendly. Even so, the yearly sales of the biggest organised biryani vendors in India — at Rs 100 crore a year — is a mere fragment of the annual sales of pizza delivery services. Dominoes, for instance, has annual sales in the range of Rs 2,000 crore.

All that could change soon. In the coming three to five years, organised players in the biryani market may command yearly sales in the region of Rs 300 crore to Rs 500 crore. Gurugram-based Biryani By Kilo (BBK), which is poised to spread its wings not just across India, but overseas too, could be among the leaders in this category of the F&B market.

Biryani By Kilo has seven kitchens in the national capital region and plans to launch operations in Mumbai next month. It plans to cover most big cities in India like Bangalore and Pune, over the next two years, before spreading its wings overseas. In the long run the BBK Biryani handis are intended to traverse distant lands — from the UAE to the United States.

“Going forward, we might have eight to ten delivery outlets in a city plus one dining outlet where the firm will have more varieties of biryanis and kebabs all over the world,” say BBK’s founders, Kaushik Roy and Vishal Jindal. The BBK kebabs, kormas and phirnis beautifully accentuate their biryani menu and are also considered among the best in India.

Operated by Sky Gate Hospitality, the food startup began operations in May 2015. Biryani By Kilo uses special ingredients like branded rice specially aged for around two years, spices handpicked from Kerala and the most stringently selected meats and vegetables for its biryanis and kebabs. It also uses world-class technologies, processes and systems for quality, standardisation, hygiene and convenience to customers. Customers may order online or through an app or a call centre.

The company secured angel funding of Rs 2.5 crore in February 2017 from various investors, at a valuation of over Rs 14 crore. Biryani By Kilo also received Pre-Series A funding in October 2017 from its existing investors including AxisCades Engineering Technologies’ Rohit Chand and his son Ashish Chand, promoters and senior management from Smile, AdvantEdge, Carlyle, Startup Equity, Thapar group and some others.

Says Kaushik Roy, Founder and CEO of BBK, “I have been in the F&B industry for the last 22 years. Then I realised that nobody was serving fresh biryani across the country and saw that there is a huge opportunity to get into the fresh biryani category.”

 Vishal Jindal, Co-Founder and Director adds, “I have been in the field of investment banking, private equity and venture capital earlier... There are no Dominos or McDonald’s from India which have gone out and captured the huge market. There is no billion dollar company from India. Biryani presents a perfect opportunity to grow all over India and worldwide.”