Led by 4 die-hard foodies, Torqus provides end-to-end management solutions for F&B industry

While most of us would only whine when our favourite eating joint closes down, the founders of Torqus went one step ahead and formed a startup that would make lives of restaurant owners and chefs a lot easier. When the one such place that they frequented shut down, they realised that the only thing restaurant owners want to focus on is providing good quality food and service to their customers.

Predictably enough, Torqus is run by four die-hard foodies -- Tanmay Ratnaparkhe, Sneh Thakkar, Suneet Kulkarni and Piyush Chavan -- who were together in college and ever since shared a strong drive to get into business. After a few years of working in IT MNCs they decided to take the plunge and venture out in the startup business.

Founded in 2011, they were initially known as SmartOrder, a POS that catered to stand-alone outlets, that also had a competent and comprehensive material management system.

With the upsurge of chains, mostly Quick Service Restaurants with central kitchens, they realised that need of the hour was doing more than just catering to standalone restaurants. The chains were booming and client requirements were sharply changing. Towards the end of 2013, they launched a new cloud-based product – Torqus Supply Chain Management Solution – which assists any chain to control anything and everything from their raw materials, customers, delivery tracking and logistics to end sales.

Torqus today is way more than just a point of sale or a material management system provider. It is an end-to-end restaurant management solutions provider for the F&B industry.

Understanding customer requirements and taking extra efforts to implement them into the product is an asset at Torqus. “Our Saas model reduces customers’ upfront costs and hassles of server management. The customers can pay as they use it and pay only for what they use,” adds Tanmay, CEO and Co-founder.

However, they also add features in the product in the form of customizable workflows, which can be configured by the customers thereby making sure that they cater to all categories of players irrespective of their size. Says Piyush, CDO at Torqus, “We want to be the IT enablers for the F&B industry.”

Their appetite for learning more every day and delivering the best to their customers is evident from the recognition they get from their clients. “No POS provider delivers service after the sale like Torqus does. They are always willing to work with us on solving problems and very reliable. In the end, service is what matters,” says Siddharth Joshi, Founder of Eatsome, a restaurant chain that has 15 outlets in Pune.

Another happy client, Rakesh Rajendran of Dumaadum, a North-Indian speciality restaurant, adds, “The cloud-based SCM and restaurant-based POS make an ideal combination for a chain of restaurants like us where the inventory needs to be managed centrally. These products are very relevant for a medium sized business.”

Today, they have visible presence in four major cities in India with over 500 clients. Having raised their first round of investment of $350,000 they are now aiming to spread their presence to tier 1 and tier 2 cities. “By the end of 2015, Torqus plans to have close to 5000 installations,an on ground presence in around more than 15 cities and are looking to hire aggressively for the same.” Says Sneh Thakkar, CMO and Co-founder of their vision for 2015.

A 35-member team of enthusiastic people spread across the product development, customer support and sales, Torqus has offices in Pune, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Many of the employees have been with the company since it started and have now grown into seasoned professionals. Being innovative and proactive is encouraged and everybody is expected to take up their initiatives and strive towards excellence.

Suneet Kulkarni, COO and Co-founder, says, “We are lucky enough to say that we have a team which looks forward to challenges in technology and support and is ready to take them head on.”

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