Hyderabad-based Isthara raises $10 million, plans to foray into retail food courts

Hyderabad-based Isthara, which offers shared living spaces, smart food courts, and cafeterias services, has raised a fresh funding of $10 million

Hyderabad: Hyderabad-based Isthara, which offers shared living spaces, smart food courts, and cafeterias services, has raised a fresh funding of $10 million (about Rs 81 crore) in a round led by Dubai-based Eagle Investments.

Isthara, which currently operates in the co-living and institutional smart food court space, will deploy the new funds to foray into the B2C retail food court space and also expand its presence in the co-living sector. It has witnessed success in the B2B institutional cafeteria segment and it now wants to replicate this in the B2C space by launching smart food courts across retail locations such as malls.

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Isthara aims to have 500 food courts across 30 cities in three years. The funding will also be used to double the bed capacity in the co-living and student accommodation segments to around 50,000 beds by 2025.

“The funding will enable us to build on our B2C portfolio and scale our operations across the retail food court market. We will also look to expand our co-living presence across the country. We believe that both these segments will undergo a digital transformation in the coming years,” said Gilbert James, Promoter and Managing Director of Isthara.

“With a rise in safety and hygiene concerns since the pandemic, we are seeing customers increasingly opting for tech-enabled and safety focused co-living and food options,” said Elias Kawar, Managing Director, Eagle Investments.