It's heartening to see how Biryani has made inroads into our daily consumption - the flavours of finely marinated meats soaked in the indulgence of spices, long grain rice cooked in the deghchi has captured a common man’s meal time imagination like nothing else ever did before.

“There’s a reason particular Biryani outlets have earned fame in various parts of India. Paradise Biryani at Hyderabad has been serving millions of palette-indulging varieties since years. It takes time to establish that kind of a fan following. And it takes even more insightful and expansive knowledge in the food category to dream of a startup dealing with a food item that has high benchmarks set across the landscape of the country. Here we get into a discussion with the latest Biryani startup that is expanding at the growth rate of 240% by the month.

So, why Biryani?

“Frankly speaking, it is a wholesome meal in a bowl. It is delicious. It has the right mix of nutrition & taste. It is an indigenous, spicy delicacy that finds favour with one and all. Be it the veg biryani or chicken or mutton - ethnically belonging to any culture, region or maybe religion; sometimes - they all find merit with the foodies”. Says Mudassir Siddiqui, the Founder and the traveller behind this interesting startup of Hello!! Biryani Hai..

“Biryani is India’s answer to the Pizza, Burger chains. Consider the home delivery chains and you will figure out that Biryani is today championing the landscape of fast food and QSR deliveries. Recently ‘Swiggy’ identified Biryani as the ‘most loved dish’ on their Food Order Analytics across the country. FoodPanda claimed that 20,000 orders of Biryani were delivered across India on New Years alone. Do we need to think any further?

Why do you call yourself the Founder & Traveller?

“Anyone who claims to have travelled the world sitting at home or office reading a book or surfing the net, hasn’t really imbibed the essence of the word ‘Travel’. Without unravelling the fine taste, the authentic aroma, exchanging notes with the actual people behind it and knowing the handwork that goes into choreographing the experience of Biryani, all you get is second-hand knowledge. And you cannot setup a business around Chinese whispers. Hence, I travel. I find whatever is waiting to be found. I meet people. Onboard them and then allow those people to cook, to prepare, to run our Biryani Business and delight our customers who can’t stop coming back for more!”

Hello! Biryani Hai! How does that mean business?

We are food delivery business. 100% delivery only. No dine-in. Amongst so many Biryani Corporates, Startups and restaurants, it was quite a challenge to surface with a name that not only presented our business proposition, but also had a ring to it. We figured that the most obvious question all customers will end up asking our call centre team would be - Hello! Biryani Hai? And since we have the inherent conviction that Haan G! Biryani Hai!, we gave the entire expression a ring with this name. And trust me, the phones haven’t stopped ringing since.

So, what is your team strength?

Like most startups, we decided to avoid a few obvious potholes so that we could focus on our actual business - preparing and delivering Biryani. Hence, even before we commenced operations, we signed up with a creative team to design our packaging, messaging and brand identity. From the very start, we were not going to appear as a ‘me too’ product. We assigned a professional consulting company to look into our compliances and regulatory affairs and expansion strategy. Meanwhile, I put my travelogue to good use and brought in chefs from Hyderabad kitchen masters and captains from Kolkata and the variety of places I had feasted on Biryani at. Today we are 23 people overseeing production and operations. Our delivery platform is franchise based. We set up franchise stores in various happening high streets so that we are right in the eye, and deliver through those counters.

Registering an outstanding expansion growth rate, what’s next?

At the rate we are growing, it would not be an exaggeration to say that we will achieve our targeted 100 counter business plan in less than 12 months from the day our first deghchi of Biryani was cooked, consumer and blessed by all stakeholders - my team, my friends and family.

As we were closing on our 10th counter, Hello! Biryani Hai caught attention of quite a few private investors. We had multiple rounds of discussions and business
projections and analysis. Our focus was on someone who was equally passionate about setting up a food business.

Finally, we found the right partner in Mr Sanchit Gupta, fourth-generation scion of the 114 years old M/S RoopRam KhyaliRam family which is an Aligarh-Mathura based distribution house. He has invested generously into India’s finest Biryani Startup for equity.

We are positive that with the positive reviews, returning customers and fast expanding franchise network, we will close in on our Series A round of funding pretty soon. Nothing worth having comes quick or easy. We are patient. We are doing what we do best - serve almost sinful biryani.

For more information, refer to below link:
http://biryanihai.com/

Contact Us:-
Hello!! Biryani Hai
Mudassir Siddiqui
[email protected]
+91- 9910385657