Page 46 - Forbes India (December 2015)

EntErprisE

faasos

The Integrated

Food Company

By building a model that spans aggregation, delivery
and sourcing, Faasos may well have succeeded in

striking a balance between scale and sustainability

By AngAd Singh ThAkur

ince the launch of their The food on-demand tag that
first restaurant in Pune it uses to define itself essentially
in 2003, Jaydeep Barman means that Faasos uses a network
S and Kallol Banerjee, co- of delivery centres (DCs) to deliver
founders of Faasos, a “food on- food to customers, around 97 percent
demand” company, have frequently of whom use its app to place orders.
been asked about the origins of its This fact by itself is unremarkable
name. In previous interviews and in a business cluttered with app-
other interactions, the duo has come based services. But add the scale of
up with a few explanations for it, Faasos’s growth and the sustainability
including the assertion that it is an of the model its co-founders have
acronym for ‘Fanatic Activism Against created, and the venture stands out.
Substandard Occidental Shit’. Today, the company, which had
This definition, though, was six outlets in Pune in 2011, is present
retrofitted. Its name, oddly enough, in 15 cities, through its 160 DCs. It
was taken from that of the African services between 15,000 and 18,000
nation, Burkina Faso. “We had orders every day, and is adding
read that it meant ‘The Land of the about 15 DCs every month. Barman
Incorruptible’. That sounded nice,” claims that they will be available kallol Banerjee (left)
says Banerjee. They proceeded to in about 25 cities by the end of this and Jaydeep Barman,
dispense with Burkina since Faso year and they hope to be in 50 by the co-founders of Faasos
sounded like fast food, which was the middle of 2016. That would entail
intended theme. “We also had our more than doubling the number of But Barman denies that inference.
designer present at the meeting and DCs to 350-400 in less than a year. “We’re not a QSR chain,” he says. This
he suggested that we add an ‘a’, since These fantastical growth numbers is not to say that it never was one.
he needed five letters in the name would border on the absurd were
to design the original logo.” (It was it a quick service restaurant (QSR) Autopilot
called Faaso’s but was rebranded in chain. For one, QSRs require high Founded by IIM-Lucknow classmates
May this year to drop the apostrophe.) capital expenditure. They also Banerjee and Barman, Faasos began
This short sequence of events is function on low margins, and it is as a restaurant in Pune, specialising
in many ways symptomatic of their usually a steep uphill climb towards in kathi rolls. In the early 2000s,
approach: The ability to quickly profitability for most QSRs. while they were working at an
determine what is and isn’t important, Owing to its delivery-centric e-learning company called Brainvisa
and to dispense with whatever isn’t. model, one would be inclined to Technologies, the two had often
It has, at least in part, aided Faasos’s assume that Faasos is a QSR. And talked about opening a restaurant
evolution from a delivery-centric with 160 outlets, that would make together. “I basically wanted to
restaurant chain to its present avatar it one of India’s largest homegrown start it because I missed the Kolkata
of a food technology company. QSR brands, which is no mean feat. kathi rolls in Pune,” says Barman.

46 | FORBES INDIA DECEMBER 11, 2015