Doctors are ready to take on the world of entrepreneurship
KLCP Health Foods, a start-up set up by Doctorpreneurs finds business opportunities in "outside food."
- Outside food may be a blessing for many, but, is turning out to be a major cause of lifestyle diseases
- The hybrid entrepreneurs termed as Doctorpreneurs introduce new offering, "QuriosEATY' as a solution to unmet need of Hyderabadi, Students, Bachelors and the working couples in providing access to hygiene and healthy daily meal/food at economical price
- On a rough estimate, the city has more than 50,000 outside unorganised food eateries comprised of roadside pushcart eateries, stalls, mess(es) and curry points doing a whopping business of approximately Rs 7,200 crore per annum
Hyderabad, February 06, 2017.......When food poses a threat to their patients' lives, what do doctors do? Do they sit pretty and do nothing? Or venture out and find a solution?. That is what a set of Doctorpreneurs of both Telugu states have done?
Instead of sitting quiet and cursing surroundings, about lifestyle diseases, they wanted to do something on their own.
They want to find solution by way of introducing a new business model by offering "QuriosEATY” as a solution to unmet need of Hyderabadi, Students, Bachelors and the working couples in providing access to hygiene and healthy daily meal/food at economic price
"QuriosEATY" is your Daily Meal Partner, they announce their new venture, which they fondly call hospital and hospitality professionals collaborative venture
The three doctorpreneuers together with a hospitality professional founded KLCP Health Foods, which took birth as a result of an incident happened in one of the founders' family. The industry has seen a rise in the number of doctor-founded businesses. But, this is one of the first "Doctorpreneur" business to have a bigger social impact in the city. The three hybrid entrepreneurs known for their business acumen ship.
'Doctorpreneurs' — is considered as the latest trend in funding for healthcare start-ups in the city. Healthcare is one such a sector to get funded difficult. Same time, physicians with sufficient capital often look to diversify to broad base their earnings. It is a win-win for both. So physician investors or doctorpreneurs are tribes cropping up to offer a solution to the problems in the community.
The brand offering by start-up floated by physician investors is "QuriosEaty", a food chain offering through multiple Curry Cafe outlets in the city, a clean, hygiene, healthy, nutritious and tasty food prepared by professional chefs and validated by nutritionists. There is a huge vacuum in this space, and we have rightly identified a business opportunity, informed Dr. Seshagiri Gedela, Founder, and Chairman. A Pediatrician with over 15 years of experience in India and UK, he is currently running Andhra Children Hospital at Vijayanagaram.
Outside food, especially curry points, and roadside eateries may be a blessing for many, but, may pose a major cause for lifestyle diseases as one is not sure about the quality of the ingredients used and safety standards followed
You are what you eat. 'ManWoman is what he/she eats.' Ninty percent of the diseases known to mankind are caused by unhealthy foodstuffs. You are what you eat say three Doctorpreneurs--Dr. Seshagiri Gedela,; Dr. Suresh Kamireddy and Dr. Rama Krishna Bojanki.
WHO in one of its reports identified India as one of the nations with high lifestyle disorders and Hyderabad is the Diabetology capital. India is also rated as the second on the list of lazy countries, and the rank is climbing. And Hyderabad is no exception to this.
Unhealthy food coupled with the sedentary lifestyle is leading to high blood pressure, lipid levels, blood glucose, cardiac problems, obesity and many lifestyle diseases.
Our endeavour through "QuriosEaty" is to address the problem scientifically and methodologically. We are into the hub and spoke model, with centralized kitchen(s) and chain of outlets (curry café's). The first pilot kitchen is currently operational at Kukatpally. We are planning to open 50-60 out lets (Curry café's) across the city by the end of 2017, currently, have approx fifteen outlets operational by launch. All the out lets are designed by the architect, to provide the "good feel" customer experience/ ambiance. Outlets primarily operate as Quik Service Restaurant (QSR) model with an option of home delivery says Dr. Suresh Kamireddy, Founder, and MD who has many years of clinical practice, research. He also has interests in multiples businesses, also is an investor, director on boards of multiple companies and advises startups/ early growth stage companies across the globe.
The startup is funded by KLCP Holdings Pvt Ltd and with co-investment by Dr. Seshagiri, Dr. Rama Krishna and Mr. Chakradhar. We have so far invested around 14 million INR, in establishing the infrastructure, technology, packaging, Marketing/ Branding, logistics and our plans include: to invest another 16 million INR in next year for further expansion of operations informed Dr. Suresh.
Dr. Seshagiri Gedela, Founder and Chairman informs that the Centralised kitchen and curry cafes are governed by Quality Management Systems and Standard Operating Procedures from raw material procurement (supply chain management) to waste disposal. The food is prepared by professional chef and validated by a nutritionist for balance nutrients in a given portion. The food thus prepared will be free from additives, tasting salts like Ajinomoto/Mono Sodium Glutamate(MSG), synthetic colors, refined salt, fine flour (Maida), Vanaspathi (Dalda).
We use oils with higher Mono Unsaturated, Poly Unsaturated fatty acids, antioxidants and with higher smoking pointand our internal quality management systems strictly avoid repetitive use of oils, add Dr. Seshagiri.
We comply and adhere to all established standards and practices in the industry. We are in process of getting ISO 90001:2015 and ISO 22000 certification. We also have Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) certification. FSSAI is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety, adds Dr. Rama Krishna Bojanki, Founder Director, who is also a Pediatrician with 12 + years of experience in clinical practice. He is running Rama Krishna Children Hospital at Tuni.
HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) Certification is also under the process. HACCP is a globally accepted systematic preventive approach to food safety from biological, chemical, and physical hazards in production processes that can cause the finished product to be unsafe, and designs measurements to reduce these risks to a safety level. This is a certification very difficult to acquire. There are only few handful of food companies in India are certified by HACCP, adds Dr. Rama Krisna.
Chakradhar Konejeti, Founder, and CEO and a former hotelier and restaurant consultants, a startup evangelist and recognized person in Hyderabad Startup ecosystem say many Bachelors and the working couples are turning to roadside eateries and curry points due to the hectic schedule. These food giants are mushrooming. Their number is estimated to be around 50,000, and it is increasing by the day. Though they may look small and unorganized, the deal meal market is estimated to be Rs 7,200crore per annum.
Eco-friendly and healthy packing: We have worked on the customer pain points in various dimension and we are trying to solve or minimise the pain points including packaging. In the current scenario most of the curry points are packing the hot food in a plastic covers which are not of food grade and there is a substantial evidence in the literature the association of melted plastic with cancer. All the packaging material we are using are of food grade and ecofriendly
Most of these are located in places like KPHP, Nizampet, Ameerpet, Mehdipatnam, Disukhnagar, SR Nagar, Ashok Nagar etc. There are nearly 50 such locations in the city known for these food outlets.
Many working people are tired of cooking after a long day work. And look for ways to pick up food on their way back home. Though there are a sufficient number of hotels to satiate their palate, affordable pricing is the essence of these eat in jiffy or pack as you like food outlets. Though bachelor's and students were the major patrons of them, working people too joined them off late.
It is easy to carry curry and cook just rice at home. Primarily working couple find it to be very convenient. Demand for these has been steadily growing up. The existing outlets do not seem to match the demand. Keeping this in mind, we will formally launch our facilities in the last week of February. We are functional already and will be fully operational by the end of this month, Chakradhar informed
