// startup autopsy

HolaChef

Mumbai meal delivery startup raised $8M to bring restaurant-quality home meals to Indian consumers and ran out of money four years later.

unit economicsSlow Death

Years-long decline before final shutdown · Fatal mistake: Unit Economics

Founded	2015
Closed	2019
Country	India
Sector	Foodtech

Key Events Timeline

2015-01

FOUNDING

HolaChef founded

2017-06

DOWN ROUND

Down round or bridge financing

2019-06

SHUTDOWN

Slow Death: HolaChef ceases operations

Full Analysis

Analyst plan

Documented cause

HolaChef connected consumers with home cooks who prepared fresh meals for delivery within a specific time window. The Mumbai startup raised $8M from Kalaari Capital and others. The model required recruiting, tr...

aining, and managing hundreds of home cooks across Mumbai neighborhoods, maintaining food safety standards, and delivering within time windows at prices consumers would pay. The complexity per order w

Verified lesson

“Home cook networks are fundamentally different from restaurant delivery: the supply side is hyper-fragmented, quality is...”

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€30M

Peak valuation

HypeCycle · MoatType · ResearchTags

HolaChef raised €8M before unit economics ended it. See the documented cause, verified lesson and all failure signals.

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Key Events Timeline

Documented cause

Verified lesson

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