Isthara Smart Food Court expands its presence to 40 Food Courts in India

Hyderabad, February 8, 2022: Smart Food Court operator and co-living brand, Isthara has expanded its smart food court presence in the country with the launch of its 40th smart food court in Hyderabad, taking the total tally of the smart food courts seats of the company to 10000 in the country. The new smart food court was launched in the Technology Research Park of IIT Hyderabad, which was inaugurated by Dr. Srivari Chandrasekhar, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.

Isthara has been reinventing conventional institutional food courts by pioneering tech-enabled processes in cafeterias across educational institutions and workplaces. Through these first-of-its-kind smart food courts, Isthara assumes the role of a food-tech partner and vendor aggregator to help educational institutes and corporates to digitize their food courts for more efficient management.

In the co-living segment, Isthara is operating over 24,000 beds across Hyderabad, Bengaluru, NCR and Chennai. In 2020, the company launched the smart food court business, and signed up 50 food courts across Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, catering to over 200,000 people. Placing tech at the core of its business, these smart food courts operate a multi-cuisine, multi-vendor aggregator format to provide people a variety of food options. In the next 3 years, Isthara aims to scale to 150,000 seats in the segment catering to over 2 million people.

Through the multi-vendor format, the smart food courts are also enabling budding F&B entrepreneurs to scale, and set new standards in the underserved institutional cafeteria dining segment.

Speaking on the expansion, Gilbert James, Co-founder, Isthara, said, “We are excited to expand our presence in the country as we continue our endeavour to bring about a world-class digitally-defined cafeteria experience that caters to the evolving millennial needs. For years, educational institutions and workplaces have been operating cafeterias with limited food options, minimal hygiene practices and no service emphasis. Since the pandemic, the gap has been even more evident from a safety and hygiene standpoint. With a unique proposition focused on curating exceptional food experiences, Isthara smart food courts are well-positioned to address this gap and solve the most basic issue of food, for the urban millennials of today.”

In September 2021, Isthara raised a fresh round of funding from existing investors JM Financial Private Equity, along with Dubai-based Eagle Proprietary Investments and a few family offices. Recently, the company acquired software product engineering firm, ‘Letsmobility’ to enhance tech solutions in the co-living and food-tech verticals.