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Journalism of Courage
When moving to a new city for a job or college, the most daunting task for anyone is to figure out their daily meals apart from looking for lodging. Pune, which has a large student and working population, has seen a multitude of tiffin and mess services mushroom across the city.
However, options for those who are on their own are usually restricted to tiffin services in their locality as they can’t afford to pay delivery fees for longer distances.
Founders of Mealawe, a new mobile app, claim they are trying to streamline this unorganised industry. “There are so many good home chefs, especially women, who provide tiffins or pickles or some special dish but only in their areas. They don’t market themselves beyond that. We got 1,000 plus such home chefs onboard who serve fresh and healthy homemade food,” said Nikhil Jain, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Mealawe.
Jain, 25, who along with Rupesh K and Pratap Kumar founded Mealawe, explains that the name of their app is a combination of Meal and Awesome and their tagline is ‘Khao ghar ka’ or ‘Eat home-cooked food’. “We want to promote healthy eating habits. Right now, with food delivery apps, people have been ordering from restaurants and cloud kitchens, which are not very healthy options. So, we didn’t go that way,” says Jain.
Officially launched in October 2022, Mealawe now has about 50,000 downloads and it receives 30,000 orders in Pune per month. They recently set up operations in Bengaluru, and Mumbai is on their radar in the next few months.
To regulate food quality, Jain says all their kitchens are certified by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and they also use sustainable packaging. They take B to B as well as B to C orders. “Apart from individuals ordering meals from the app, we also serve corporations like Godrej, Thermax, etc. We have an option for bulk orders for housewarming ceremonies or such events, as it is affordable,” says Jain, an engineer and a marketer.
Mealawe, Jaun says, also has an option for flexible subscription plans and do not expire if students go home for some days a month. “One has to choose the kitchen and a time slot for delivery. The slots start after one hour, if you are ordering at 3, the delivery slots will be 4-5, and 5-6, so we can cook and serve freshly made food. We have a weekly menu where we offer sabjis like bhindi, chole, paneer, etc, that most people would like,” says Jain.
While the app uses third-party services for delivery, it will soon onboard its delivery persons, adds Jain.
In 2023, Zomato had announced something on similar lines called Zomato Everyday, and billed it as “fresh home-style meals crafted with real home chefs at affordable prices”.
However, Jain says Swiggy and Zomato are not direct but indirect competitors because they provide restaurant food primarily. “Zomato’s new vertical, Zomato Everyday, serves food from cloud kitchens every day, but it is not working on the home chefs model. But they are definitely our competitors on the food delivery part”.
