Tribal Meal Express food app to partner with home-based kitchen enterprises

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Aug. 28 (EMN): Food delivery services in Nagaland have become a sector of economic potential, with the trend only becoming more visible as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Observing that the online food business was doing well in the market, two Naga lads — Lipoksasong Longkumer and Imsunungsang — developed an online food app called Tribal Meal Express.

They were spurred by the pandemic as they noticed that ‘many people were scared to go out’.

Longkumer told Eastern Mirror that they have been developing the app for two months.

‘There have been trials and errors but finally most of the things have been rectified,’ he said.

Imsunungsang also said that the idea of developing the app was due to the pandemic.

“We thought about creating our own app and partner with restaurants and start this business,” he shared.

He said that they were working outside the state before the pandemic forced them to return home.

The app, which was officially launched on Saturday, will become functional by August 30 and it will be available on Google Play Store and IOS App Store.

Sharing about their objectives, Imsunungsang said that they want to give opportunities to the youth, while focusing on two-wheeler women riders and encouraging them to join.

Another objective is to partner with small restaurants or home-based kitchen enterprises for those who have the talent but do not have the resources to open a restaurant, he said, adding that “we want to partner with them and we can help boost their sale”.

He further stated the food app will be ‘an app with a cause’. They plan to use certain percentage of their sales to the needy people.

It was informed that they have employed eight delivery boys and still require more ‘riders’.

As the app grows, the need for riders will also grow, he added.

Longkumer added that the app will be available only in Dimapur at the moment though they have plans for expansion.

The centre manager for YouthNet Incubation Centre, Neike Bekho, shared that the app developers were trying to impact not only small restaurant businesses but also help mothers who were working from home, and their target was also to employ more local people.

He stated that the new food app would be different from others as they were trying to be employee-centric and there were insurance covers for the delivery boys and other compensations.

They will also be giving 2% of the profit to charity and have connected with over 70 small business entrepreneurs, he added.