Two decades ago, Manohar Adhikari used to work at the USA-based software company, D2Hawkeye, whose Nepal office was located in Bishalnagar. At launch, he felt the lack of proper restaurants around the office.
He used to wonder if a good restaurant could deliver lunch to his office. Taking this idea seriously, he later formed a startup company. This company is Foodmandu, an online food delivery service popular in the Kathmandu Valley and Pokhara.
The initial phase
From 2004 to 2006, he worked at D2Hawkeye. After that, he began working as a freelance software developer. While working as a freelancer, he always wanted to do something by himself.
As his expertise was in the IT sector, he thought of establishing a company that provides IT services for businesses. Then he researched several ideas and the idea of delivering food online remained at the top of the list.
Often, people cannot eat their choice of food due to the lack of good restaurants nearby, which can be solved through online food delivery services.
Hence, in 2010 Adhikari founded Foodmandu.
The challenges
However, launching Foodmandu did not meet his expectations. At that time access to the internet and smartphones was less and the startup company was not doing so well. Back then, people also had no idea about online food delivery services and restaurants had trust issues regarding the concept of online food delivery.
Initially, Adhikari was engaged with a restaurant for Foodmandu. It was challenging for him as the restaurant owner did not trust his idea would work. After considerable effort, he earned the restaurant’s trust. “It took a lot of time to convince the restaurant,” says Adhikari.
In the first year, the company used to get an average of five orders per day, recalls Adhikari. For a long time, the company went through a loss. Initially, it was challenging to find a delivery person to deliver food.
“To deliver food was an unconventional job,” says Adhikari, “It used to be difficult to make the employees understand their duties.”
After four years of running the business, Adhikari doubted whether the business would run for long. The business was growing but it was not as expected. The expenditure was more than earnings. However, Adhikari also had a gut feeling that this business would thrive someday.
“I was confident because the market had already started recognising the business,” says Adhikari. “Slowly, the number of customers was increasing. The customer who once used our service started using it repeatedly. People started believing in us.”
Adhikari was confident that if the business person does not seek overnight success, the business will be long-lasting.
He was happy with the progress of a business but his happiness did not last for long. In 2015 Nepal was hit by a devastating earthquake and later India posed an economic blockade in Nepal.
Such events badly affected the business of Foodmandu. Although the business declined then, Foodmandu had already become a trustworthy brand and the investor’s eyes were on it.
The new hope
When Adhikari started Foodmandu, there was no concept of venture capital, private equity funds, or angel investors in Nepal. He never thought he would arrange funds from venture capital. However, by 2016, all such companies were operational in Nepal.
Venture capitalists had already started developing an interest towards Foodmandu. Some of them even proposed to invest in Foodmandu. He was confident that the additional investment would help the business grow.
Later, in 2016, he agreed to an investment from True North Associates. The investment significantly contributed to the company’s growth. For five years after starting the company, it operated through its website. Then, in 2015, they released a mobile application.
In 2020, Foodmandu received a second phase of investment. From 2016 to 2020, Foodmandu’s business grew tenfold. In 2021 the company expanded their business in Pokhara as well. “In Pokhara, the business is not as big as in Kathmandu, but it is progressive,” says Adhikari.
In 2023, Foodmandu received investment for the third time. This time the company received an investment of Rs 460 million from Dolma Impact Fund. The company has not disclosed the amount of the previous investment.
Till 2020, the company was doing well, but due to Covid-19, its business started to decline. Currently, there is a notable improvement in the business. Although demands for food delivery were high during the lockdown, the closure of restaurants and restrictions on movement affected the business.
Currently, Foodmandu does the business of over Rs 750 million per year. As of now, 800 to 900 active restaurants are working with Foodmandu. On average, Foodmandu receives 2,000 to 2,200 orders per day. There are over 120 human resources, working from Foodmandu’s office.
Foodmandu is planning to expand its services in other big cities too. Foodmandu is also planning to invest in cloud kitchens. Foodmandu making its business versatile has started its delivering goods service as well.
Along with the company’s growth, Adhikari says he is also concerned about the facilities for employees. Adhikari claims that the company gives the best salary in the food delivery sector of Nepal. “We are also into social security and have been providing facilities specified by the government,” says Adhikari.
The rider of Foodmandu earns a minimum of Rs 20,000 to a maximum of Rs 70,000 monthly.
In the next five years, Adhikari aims to grow his business tenfold and take it public. He is optimistic about the company’s expanded growth. “The emergence of new food delivery services will help this service to grow as an industry,” says Adhikari.
The post Manohar Adhikari: The man behind Foodmandu appeared first on OnlineKhabar English News.
Comments
Post a Comment