Subha Ganesh is the founder of a new home-cooked food cooks platform and community delivery service. NoshyCircle isn't like other 'takeaway' based food apps etc, because it's not fast food.
NoshyCircle cooks are rated home cooks that are running their own kitchens like a business. The NoshyCircle platform allows and supports them in becoming their own boss. For many, this is a massive plus while they're normally at home (either due to family life or the current pandemic) they're in the kitchen cooking delicious home meals. It lets you order the same meals that can be ordered by the local community and gives the cooks an income. NoshyCircle is safe and secure for all cooks, no personal address details are shared with customers. NoshyCircle takes care of all the eco-friendly packaging and the deliveries.
Subha spoke to Asian Voice about how Asian communities are embracing the opportunity to become their own bosses and how people are enjoying the delicacies that are being cooked.
Please tell us briefly about the advent of NoshyCircle.
NoshyCircle is a revolution in the takeaway world – it’s a marketplace for home cooks. Current convenient takeaways are detrimental to our health. There’s a steep increase in obesity in both adults and children due to unhealthy eating habits. NoshyCircle brings takeaway convenience but with wholesome home-cooked meals.
How many home cooks (especially Asians) are a part of it?
There are around 30+ active home cooks on the platform. 90% have an Asian background.
Please share some data about the platform.
We launched the business in Nov’20 in Harrow. In six months, we have expanded from Harrow to Wembley, Watford and Aylesbury.
We have processed 1000+ orders with revenue of around £8k+. We have 100+ dishes from Indian, Pakistani, Thai, Italian, Caribbean cuisines. One of the unique features is that you can buy from multiple kitchens in one single transaction, so if you want an Indian while the kids want Italian, you can order both for just £1 additional delivery.
You select the delivery time slot you want and we deliver your food fresh and hot to your doorstep.
How has it helped the South Asian community during the pandemic?
Most of our cooks were economically inactive until they started on our platform. Now they are actively making money and have registered as self-employed. The platform has helped many women to turn their passion into an income making business. During the pandemic and working from home, our cooks were able to provide healthy wholesome food to our customers. Customers are able to relax and focus on their job as we deliver freshly cooked lunch and dinner.
What kind of responsibility comes with starting something related to food?
Unlike other business categories, though we are a tech platform, there is a responsibility from our side. Our due-diligence process ensures that all the cooks are registered with their local council and hold Level 2 food safety certification. We also do a home visit to check their kitchen and general hygiene before they join the platform and every quarter from there.
We have food tasting sessions before we activate any kitchen and also have regular secret shoppers and bloggers who taste the food and give us their feedback.
What's the future of the platform in the post- Covid world?
We are currently building a website to enable older people to order through the platform. We are also exploring the opportunity of real time ordering, where customers will get some basic food even if they forget to order by the pre-order time. We have nutrition labels on the platform currently, we are expanding the health aspect by providing the opportunity to filter using nutritional requirements and also customers can set their health goal and our AI system will recommend the right meal for their goal.
