Leading ready-to-cook Asian cuisine brand, MasterChow has raised Rs 3.5 Crore (Approx $462,000) in series seed round funding led by WEH Ventures.
The round also saw participation from prominent angel investors such as Aditya Singh and Ravi Shroff.
“The startup plans to use the raised funds to expand its marketing capabilities, product development, hiring, and for business expansion,” the Startup said.
Speaking about the fundraise, Sidhanth Madan, Cofounder, MasterChow said “We want to be the disruptor brand in the $3 Bn ready-to-cook categories specifically focusing on the Asian sauce and condiment market. The covid-19 pandemic has created a shift in consumer preferences for better quality products and for transparency with ingredient sourcing, which has been a great propeller for us.”
“With a strategic focus on convenience, our product range offers innovative flavors in an easy to use format. Our customers come from across the board, from young couples, millennials to larger family households spread across different geographies, and with the current fundraising, we plan to enter new categories while increasing current manufacturing capabilities and go deeper with our online footprint,” Sidhanth added.
Commenting on the funding in MasterChow, Rohit Krishna, General Partner, WEH Ventures said “Indians love Chinese & other Asian cuisines, however, the reason people don’t venture to cook this at home regularly is because of the lack of high-quality ingredients available in the market. When we tried MasterChow sauces for the first time, it became very apparent what the market was missing. We believe they’ll end up leading the RTC market for this segment in the next 3-5 years”.
Founded in June 2020 by Vidur Kataria and Sidhanth Madan, The D2C startup has a team size of 25 members, including the corporate and operations teams, and is planning to double the size of its corporate team over the next 12 months. MasterChow’s existing range of offerings has a strong product-market fit and it is looking to scale that on marketplaces, modern/general trade outlets to increase accessibility.
Further speaking on the investment, Deepak Gupta, General Partner, WEH Ventures said, “Vidur and Sidhanth have spent the time building a well-loved Asian restaurant brand and bring a lot of insights and skills to the table. They truly embody the founder-market fit as they enable thousands of people to create restaurant-quality Asian food easily at home.”