Ola Foods to start Khichdi Experiment

Ola foods, the food business app plans to scale up private brands. They are starting with a Khichdi Experiment. They are planning to take this step months after lowering investment in their food delivery app, Food Panda. 

“We have taken the shift from a food delivery company to a food-first company. The focus now is to create a portfolio of own brands, which we believe is a prominent opportunity, and a long term asset,” Pranay Jivrajka, CEO.

The strategy is on the roll to start the investments again in Food Panda and make it a large clod kitchen again. “There are 7-8 brand pilots going on in parallel, and we are experimenting with different physical retail models, including corporate kiosk, presence in malls, food trucks etc, as well as listing on Swiggy, Dunzo and Ola,” Jivrajka said.

Ola food has opened its first physical store for Khichdi Experiment in Bengaluru. Presently the company has 50 kitchens and they plan to turn it into 150-200 kitchens in the next 12-18 months. Over the last nine months, the company has scaled down Food Panda’s operations after it realized that they were merely burning cash. 

Other brands like Swiggy, Zomato are setting up the infrastructure to partner with restaurants.