If you look at your living room, the TV has evolved from the old cathode-ray tube model to LED and a smart TV with a voice remote. But if you look at your kitchen, not much has changed, says Eshwar K Vikas, co-founder of Mukunda Foods, the company that had, 10 years ago, engineered the automated Dosamatic machine used by many restaurants today to roll out dosas.
That thought led him to start another company, Beyond Appliances, in 2024, together with Rakesh Patil, a former Hindustan Aeronautics engineer and colleague at Mukunda Foods. “We are trying to remagine Indian kitchens,” declares Vikas, who is himself an avowed foodie. While Mukunda Foods continues to build automated machines for the restaurant industry — it also manufactures the Wokie for cooking Chinese food, and a sandwich maker — Vikas wants to focus on products for the Indian home.
The kitchen tech company received $2 million in November last year in a seed funding round led by Fireside Venture Investment III, with participation from Dharana Capital and angel investors like Chandru Kalro, former CEO, TTK Prestige; Shezan Bhojani, founder, Design Cafe; and Saurabh Jain and Ramakant Sharma, co-founders, Livspace.
Its products include stoves with whistle counters and chimneys with display screens to play videos and livestream OTT shows.
Cook in AV mode
Vikas says they discovered that a lot of people now follow video recipes on social media, cooking while watching them on their phones. “But the experience is broken as you keep pausing the video,” he says. The Orion Android chimney comes with a 7-inch touchscreen and thousands of video recipes loaded into it. The best part, says Vikas, is that the video pauses and restarts on its own after each step in the cooking process, thanks to an inbuilt timer.
The Elara smart chimney, launched this March, comes with AI capabilities. With Bluetooth connectivity and built-in FM radio, cooking can be livened up by playing one’s favourite music.
Safety features
Beyond Appliances has also tinkered with cooking hobs to solve another common pain point in Indian kitchens — failure to switch off pressure cookers on time. The company now offers a hob with a whistle counter and digital timer that turns off the pressure cooker at the stipulated time. “The microwave and airfryer come with timers, so why not the stove — a commonly used kitchen appli ance,” Vikas says.
Additionally, all the burners come with a flame failure detection feature. “Often milk boils over and extinguishes the burner, but the gas continues to get consumed,” he points out. With the flame failure detection feature, the stove will automatically turn off if such a mishap occurs. A timer-controlled cooking feature also prevents overcooking.
The chimney and hobs with these added features are priced marginally higher than other existing products. The company uses digital-first retailing on Amazon, Flipkart, and its own website. For installation, Beyond Appliances has tied up with Urban Company. The company is certainly cooking up change in the kitchen.