In-Restaurant App, Dash, Is Finalising Funding and Expanding Before The End of The Year

Dash, an in-restaurant app, founded by Monica Narula, Gunjan Mehrish and Noopur Tiwari was launched in June earlier this year and was created to allow restaurants to share their menu better with their customers. What Dash does is elaborates on ingredients, showcase videos and highlights preferences directly from the eatery. Currently six F&B outlets in the country are using Dash, but the founders are looking to expand and reach a total of 30 F&B outlets pan India by the end of the year.

They received seed funding from Ratan Tata, but are currently in the process of finalising the Series A funding in the next few months. “We will be parting with a small share of the brand for a modest fund amount which will assist us in growth for the next six months,” outlined Mehrish. The app is currently only available on iOS, but they are looking into expanding it into Android as well. The service to be availed and payment structure of the app can be personalised. It can be used on a monthly payment basis ranging from Rs, 10,000 to Rs. 25,000 in India.

They’re also looking into expanding outside of the country by opening an office in France, with operations starting there by year end. Following that, they are looking at Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Sri Lanka and other South East Asian countries.

Mehrish also added, “In India, our potential markets comprise Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata. In the domestic market, we are mainly concentrating on chef led restaurants. Hotel brands such as ITC and Taj have also shown great interest. Newer features on the app will also be introduced with time.”

When explaining how the app works, Mehrish said that diners can preview meals visually by tapping on the menu. The app also sorts the dishes in unique ways and demystifies exotic menus and provides valuable tools for restaurateurs. “Realising the information gap about dishes and breaking the awkwardness of asking the staff about a number of dishes, we thought of curating a credible option for consumers to have an authentic look and feel of the dishes. It is also a great digital marketing tool for the f&b outlets,” he explained.