How Daalchini is Spicing up Micro Retail in India

Through its smart vending machines, the Noida-based company is offering 24/7 convenience to customers, reach to over 200 brands and new business opportunities to entrepreneurs

- Shiv Joshi

Workers at Reliance Ltd.'s Jamnagar plant that is in the middle of nowhere never have to worry about getting food, irrespective of the hour. They can get traditional Gujarati savouries like theplas and khakras 24/7 at the touch of a button from any of the 120 machines installed on the premises. These smart machines by Daalchini Technologies were a saving grace for them during the lockdown.

The Noida-based company enables 24/7 autonomous retail through smart stores, phygital kiosks and vending machines at manufacturing plants, ports and offices of Adani, Tata, BMW, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Mercedes, and many others, alongside over 190 brands like Sleepy Owl, The Whole Truth Foods, and industry giants like Dabur, Nestle HUL, Nestle, Whirlpool and Aditya Birla Group.

In just seven years since its inception, Daalchini boasts 6 lakh monthly active users. The company was even invited to demonstrate its vending machines during the G20 Summit at Pragati Maidan.

The Inspiration

Co-founder of Daalchini, Prerna Kalra was introduced to the power and convenience of the machines during one of her work visits to China. She was impressed that they could dispense almost every kind of fresh food item-from fruits to momos. And they were ubiquitous. "While vending machine-based retail was so deeply penetrated in China, I still saw my father owning a mom-n-pop store in a tier 2 city and finding it challenging to expand it to more locations. It just clicked in my mind," remembered the Noidabased entrepreneur who struggled to find fresh food as a working professional. Vending machines seemed to be the answer to both problems-that of scaling up her father's retail business and getting food 24x7.

At the time, Prerna headed products at Paytm, which she joined as one of the first few employees. It is there that she met Vidya Bhushan, who later became the co-founder when she started her business in August 2017.