Chutney

Chutney provides fresh fruits and vegetables to the next 300m Indians who are coming online. Customers order on WhatsApp and pick up their orders from a nearby mom and pop store (Kirana store), which acts as a neighborhood hub.We’re building Amazon for India’s mass market, the new middle class of 300m who are now coming online. Just like Amazon started with books when the US was coming online, we are starting with fresh fruits and vegetables that Indian families buy multiple times every week. There are over 450m Indians with access to the internet and smartphones, but only 150m of them buy online. This is because they find eCommerce apps and websites too complex to use. They also find it hard to trust an online business with no physical presence. With Chutney, customers place their orders on Whatsapp and pick up the next day from a nearby store. All the orders are bulk shipped to the store, bringing down logistics cost. Chutney is building a network of mom and pop stores spread across the city. Store owners share daily prices of fruits and vegetables with their customers on WhatsApp via the Chutney seller app. The app also has a simple interface for store owners to manage customer orders. By using WhatsApp we are plugging into the existing customer behavior rather than force-fitting an app or website. Also, by partnering with mom and pop stores, we establish customer trust. We launched 6 weeks ago in Coimbatore. We are doing over 700 orders a week amounting to $1400, growing at over 40% week on week. We are going after 60m new middle-class households, at 72 orders/year of $3 each, that is a $13b market opportunity for fresh fruits and vegetables alone.