India food startups burnt by too many cooks in the kitchen

Mumbai

AS entrepreneurs around the world founded technology startups in the past few years to deliver food to diners' doors, perhaps no market grew quite as riotously as India. Customers could order entrees, main dishes and desserts from different startups, none of which required a minimum order. Discounts were plentiful and delivery was free.

Now the all-you-can-eat buffet is over. Venture capital is drying up and startups are disappearing. TinyOwl, a pioneering Mumbai-based food delivery app that raised US$23 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, has run through most of its money and will merge with a smaller delivery firm, Runnr. PepperTap, a grocery service backed by Sequoia and Snapdeal.com, shut down in April, following the closure last year of Dazo, a startup with financing from executives at Google and Amazon. Even the country's only food tech unicorn, Gurgaon-based Zomato, saw its billion-dollar valuation slashed in half this month by analysts at HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India).