Online grocery is the hottest vertical for startups right now in India, and looking at the sheer market size in a country like India, it seems there is still a lot of space to fit a few new startups. Thus, the latest company to enter the market is 24x7Fresh, an app based online grocery startup, looking for a 30-city launch across India.
The company will have a reach of more than 30 cities within 12 months, including Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune. It is also planning to hire more than 1500 executives in departments like technology, marketing, logistics and customer support.
It will offer a wide line up of products, including grocery, ready-to-eat food items, and health and beauty products. Initially, the company is planning to house an inventory of nearly 15,000 products, including fresh veggies, fruits, dry fruits, meat, frozen foods, everyday grocery, daily essentials, world food, baby care, health and beauty products.
24x7Fresh is founded by Randhir Kumar and two others with an aim to assist consumers save on their budgets and enjoy shopping by introducing ‘Adaptive Technology ‘ & ‘Hybrid Retail System’.
The company is going to offer 1 hour delivery service which is pretty good and could help attract more customers in this competitive market as no other company is offering such rapid delivery. However, whether the claim is justifiable, will only be known post launch.
Cofounder and CEO 24x7Fresh Mr Randhir Kumar tells us
We’re looking for people with fresh and innovative ideas to establish a rewarding career with us. With ‘24x7Fresh’, and the industry poised for significant growth in the next 5 years the opportunities to grow with the industry will be phenomenal. The company has planned attractive 3 month appraisals along with complimentary meals and an open platform for employees to share their ideas.
According to a business advisory firm Technopak, the online grocery business in India is expected to see an eight-fold growth in coming two years and will become a 4000 crore market by 2017. That, being a staggering figure in itself, is still a minute fraction of what this market’s actual potential, in a country like India is.
As for competition, 24X7Fresh will face-off directly with bigger players like Amazon’s Kirana Now, PepperTap, Grofers and ZopNow. Recently, Tata Group also entered the market with My24x7Market.com.
