Mumbai-based healthy food delivery service startup Grubit plates up calorie-counted nutritional meals to working professionals

Launched in June 2015, healthy food service startup Grubit aims to allow customers have a sustainable diet following different cuisines everyday and eating controlled portions of food at a competitive price. With individual diet plans, calorie count and a new menu every day, Grubit wants to bridge the gap between desire for healthy living and lack of will to pursue it by providing healthy, tasty, variety and calorie-counted food.

Based out of Mumbai, Grubit was started by four ex-IITians: Jatin Jhakharia (ex-IITB), Manvitha Janagam (ex-IIT, Kharagpur), Ayushi Singh Rathore (ex-IIT, Kharagpur), and Harshvardhan Yadav (ex-IIT, Kharagpur)

Co-founders Jatin says, “People are getting conscious about eating healthy. Professional work life is quite hectic and one does not find enough motivation to prepare healthy food at home. They do not have motivation to work out every day as well. We are providing the comfort of eating calculated portions of healthy meals.”

Grubit caters to people on different diet levels - for the strict diet followers (less than 300 calories/day); conscious foodies who like to try different cuisines (500 calories/day) and for the moderately active people (700 calories).

The Beginning of Grubit

While working as a professional in corporate finance division, Ayushi felt the need for having healthy lunches. She recalls, “I am a big time foodie and being away from home for eight years has taken a toll on my health because of untimely and unhealthy eating habits. So we started this venture in an effort to provide healthy, nutritious and timely food especially for those who stay away from home or have busy schedules.” Grubit has a unique calorie counted menu, varying from exotic continental food to the traditional Indian ghar ka khana depending on calories one wants to intake.

Grubit caters mostly to corporate customers who do not have the time to either cook at home or consciously count their calories. In Mumbai, majority of their customers are office-goers in Lower Parel and Worli followed by Powai.

Grubit has an in-house nutritionist who specifically designs the menu ensuring that each meal is below the desired specified calorie content. They also have a no-oil and no-processing policy which helps them play around more within the calories prescribed.

Jatin says, “As of now we work on a subscription-based model and orders close before 9 AM of the day so that it makes it easier to plan our logistics. We wish to soon venture into the on-demand space covering all the meals in a day.”

Grubit has launched cold-pressed juices to replace the junk people eat at snack time. The aim is to make every meal of the day healthy. From the time of its launch, Grubit has delivered more than 500 healthy lunches. Bootstrapped till now, Grubit is actively looking for funding for expansion.

The Indian Food Delivery Market

Increasing urbanisation, rising disposable incomes, more women joining workforce and rapid smartphone penetration are the signals of rising need for healthy meals. Professionals with hectic schedules have a desire to burn calories through workouts, but do not have the will or time to be regular at it.

Indian food service is a USD 50 billion market growing at an annual rate of 11 per cent. Online food delivery is valued at USD 15 billion growing 40 per cent in the last 12 months. The functional food and the health product category is more than 20 per cent of the food market currently and is expected to capture a major share by 2020.

Others in this space

CalorieCare, Yumist, Dial-a-Diet, Foodizm are some of the companies in competition with Grubit. Unlike its competitors, Grubit aims to be a comprehensive healthy meal service with added services like tiffin, calorie count, international cuisine, diet plans. Jatin says, “We break the monotony of serving the same cuisine. Each day, we serve a different specialty from around the world. The food is strictly cooked in olive oil and not only is the menu approved by our nutritionist but the recipe is also given by her to make sure we provide the promised taste, nutrition and calories."

Future Plans

Grubit plans to start its own kitchen very soon with diet and nutrition consulting. It aims to deliver healthy food at any point of time of the day all across Mumbai by the end of 2015. It also plans to launch customised diet plans and list health professional services.

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