Supply Chain Solution for Restaurants Supply Port Gets Pre-Seed Funding From Marquee Investors

Supply Port, a B2B brand providing a one-stop supply chain solution for restaurants has raised pre-seed funding of an undisclosed amount from marquee investors. The investors include-Anant Agrawal and Sanjeev Agrawal- Directors of MMG Restaurants Private Limited. The brand was founded by Samarthya Bhargava and Manoj Malhotra with an aim to offer technology-based inventory management, just in time inventory replenishment and a one-stop-shop for restaurant supplies. Currently they are servicing in Delhi NCR, including Gurgaon, Delhi and NOIDA to about 200 restaurants and are planning to expand to over 30,000 restaurants across the top 40 cities in India in the next 3 years.

Mr. Samarthya Bhargava (R) & Mr. Manoj Malhotra (L) 

The business is currently growing 20% month on month and with this round of funding they are planning to double the growth. Through this investment, Supply Port plans to focus on technology upgradation to ensure the most efficient supply chain system specifically designed for the hospitality industry. Expansion plans will require the acquisition of a professional team in order to build an organisation that doesn’t crumble under the burden of exponential growth.

Commenting on the funding, Mr. Anant Agrawal, Director of MMG Restaurants Private Limited said, “We are super excited to partner with Samarthya on their vision to offer tech-based inventory management that solves the major problem of restaurants to maintain the inventory manually. I feel it’s a revolutionary solution to a problem that exists with the majority of restaurants in Pan India. We have extreme confidence in the growth potential of this category and opportunity to build a category-defining brand in the supply chain industry.”

Adding to the vote of confidence, Mr. Sanil Sachar, Founding Partner, Huddle (Huddle being an accelerator to Supply Port) said, “Supplyport is building itself into becoming a central system for the HORECA segment through its seamless support to help their clientele optimize their backend while being able to scale. Supply Chain as a sector has been awaiting a focussed disruption of this nature. Combining the deep knowledge of the product, ops, business acumen and execution skills, Samarthya and his team have created the correct systems to diversify their offerings and presence across geographies. I have full faith in the growth potential of the brand and we’re excited for the journey ahead.”

The organised restaurant market comprises over 1,20,000 restaurants in the top 40 cities of India. Averaging at about 6,000 in tier 1 cities and 1,500 in tier 2 cities. Supply Port is currently servicing 200 restaurants in a city which has roughly 8,000 restaurants granting it 2.5% of the market share in just Delhi NCR. Supply Port is trying to marry technology with the brand with a problem-solving approach. The integration of the mobile application with Supply Port’s backend software will ensure that the stock at the restaurant is always replenished on time and restaurants minimum stock levels are maintained. Through machine learning and AI, the mobile app will learn the ordering pattern of a restaurant and make it more efficient and accurate over time. This will also enable Supply Port to make the purchase and inventory system of the restaurant more efficient and transparent to the owner.

Commenting on the funding and vision of the brand, Samarthya Bhargava, Co-founder of Supply Port said, “Supply Port will focus in easy to use systems that can be comfortably adopted by our customers, and service delivery that will make the supply side of the restaurant business as organised as the front end. With these competitive advantages against the prevailing amorphous systems, we intend to focus on rapid growth across restaurants in India.”

About the Co- Founders:

Mr. Samarthya Bhargava – Founder and CEO of SupplyPort

Samarthya cut his teeth into entrepreneurship while studying Industrial Design in the UK. He undertook several initiatives, including designing a memory bracelet for iPhone; an App for aggregating college students as a marketplace for brands, and dabbling with pop-up events in the bars and restaurants in Bath during his internship. After returning to India, Samarthya was determined to make it as an entrepreneur. He started off with Brainchild, a product design company. Alongside, Samarthya kept on exploring opportunities and partnering with other like-minded people to launch Impawsters - a designer pet accessory brand. Zhic – a designer headphone brand, 25 Limited – a designer t-shirt brand with every design created only 25 pieces, and XOXO – a pop-up event company to promote footfalls in nightclubs and bars, are some of his other ventures.

His enduring interest in the restaurant business led him to invest in a few restaurants in Delhi NCR and Goa. The learnings from this venture show that the back-end of the restaurant business is fraught with problems such as ad-hocism, opacity, unscientific buying, lack of precision in inventory management, and unreliable supply chains. These were the prime motivations for him to launch SMS SupplyPort or SupPort.

Mr. Manoj Malhotra - Co-founder and COO

Manoj Malhotra has had a multi-dimensional career spanning from financial controller to chief administrator responsible for purchase of services for JWT, the organisation he served successfully for over 20 years. He honed his skill in negotiation, vendor management and maintaining service quality across the board.

At an entrepreneurial level, Manoj has investments and operational experience in the HORECA sector, where he ran a 30 room guest house successfully for two decades. He also has extensive operational experience in logistics having run a transport company of his own for a few years as well.

All these skills are now being brought to bear in building SMS Supplyport. He is the reason that Support operations and services are grounded to reality and operate on market truths rather than high flown logic created in glass cabins. As one of the co- founders, he is a key differentiator between SMS SupplyPort and a host of competitors who are jostling for space in this field.

About the Company

The brand defines itself as technology-based inventory management, just-in-time inventory replenishment, and a one-stop shop for restaurant supplies. As we see, inventory management is a manual process in most restaurants in India. SupplyPort acts as a one-stop solution for restaurants and helps them in procuring their supplies with the help of AI and technology. Their services will be available in over 30,000 restaurants across the top 40 cities in India in the next three years. Currently, the brand is enabling 200 restaurants in Delhi NCR.

The goal to increase efficiency in supply chains for the restaurant industry was a total lack of interest in technology investments. Traditional modes of servicing this industry are falling short of rising expectations, and a specialised tech-enabled, efficient, convenient and transparent supply chain system is the definitive future of the hospitality industry.

To know more about us and future associations log onto: https://supplyport.in/

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