Retail tech startup Daalchini raised $4 million in a Series A round led by Unicorn India Ventures on September 7.
The round also attracted existing investors such as Artha Venture Fund, former CEO of Domino’s India Ajay Kaul, and VSS Investco, a vertical investment firm led by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO of fintech unicorn Paytm.

Daalchini said it would use the bulk of the funding to expand its industry footprint and strengthen its technological capabilities. It also wants to make its solutions available to 10 million retail locations in India and more than 450 food and beverage and direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands.

Founded in 2017 by former employees of Paytm Prerna Kalra and Vidya Bhushan, Daalchini delivers snacks and home-cooked meals to customers through technology-based models such as kiosks, mobile retailers and intelligent vending machines.

“Daalchini aims to build a footprint in every 200 meters of the habitable area through its autonomous smart stores and vending machines. Today, there are only a few thousand vending machines in our country, while in the US or Japan, there is more than one vending machine for every 200 people. We are far from the true potential of this retailing,” said Kalra, CEO of Daalchini.

Kalra added that the company had expanded its network to 11 states and 23 cities with more than 850 stores. In a statement, Daalchini said it aims to grow from 850 smart and autonomous retail stores to more than 5,000 in the next 12-18 months.

The company offers food and beverage options and has established partnerships with Reliance, Aditya Birla Group’s Hindalco, Vodafone, GE, Genpact, NITI Aayog, House, MX Player, Samsung, Paytm, Snapdeal, Byjus, EY, OLX, OYO, Loreal and more Partnerships, partners and VIVO, etc.

The company also said it has partnered with more than 160 brands, including Sleepy Owl, The Whole Truth Foods, Open Secret, Yoga Bar, Slurrp Farm, BRB, Cremica Opera, Cravova, Millet Bowl, Yogapulp, as well as industry giants such as Dabur and Nestle, Mars. Daalchini said its retail-as-a-service platform enables these brands to grow in hundreds of brick-and-mortar stores while digitally tracking real-time insights.

Currently, its app has more than 2 lakh monthly active users, according to Daalchini. The company also said it had tripled its base and achieved product-market fit (PMF) in the last 12 months, with revenue of Rs 12 crore in FY22. Daalchini said it targets revenue of Rs 50 crore and gross merchandise value of Rs 130 crore in the next 12 months.