(March 30, 2025) Imagine a young man who, while working with industry giants like Amazon and Microsoft and even inventing gadgets that truly change lives for the differently abled, was always driven by one simple idea: technology can make life better. After spending 16 years in the US — gathering wisdom, weathering challenges, and even grappling with personal loss —Arvind Ravichandran returned to India with a clear mission: to bridge the gap between cutting-edge technology and everyday life.
Back home, he set out to drive real impact and change, and that’s when Bhookle was born. This isn’t just another food delivery app; it’s a platform where authentic home-cooked flavours cooked by women home chefs meet innovative technology. By empowering these chefs to showcase their culinary skills, Bhookle is helping preserve regional flavours and traditions, all while providing an opportunity for women entrepreneurs to earn a sustainable income. With over 130 chefs already onboard, Bhookle is building cultural pride by showcasing traditional recipes and culinary heritage while gradually changing India’s food delivery scene with a people-first approach.
Arvind Ravichandran, Founder of Bhookle
“I always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. When you have solo ideas in your head, there is this excitement of seeing it alive in the real world and only entrepreneurs can do it,” Arvind Ravichandran tells Global Indian. And it was this idea that took him to the USA and ultimately brought him back to India, where he believed his vision could truly make a difference.
Studying in the US: Pioneering Patent-Winning Innovations with Global Tech Impact
His formative years in academia were split between India and the United States. He completed his computer science and engineering from India and did his masters from University of Buffalo and Iowa State University (partially between both schools) and built his knowledge around computer engineering and information systems. “Even during my engineering enrolment, I was curious about the possibility of science, technology and solutions for problems intersecting. In spirit of that, I had invented two robotic devices to help the differently abled community. One was an Intelligent cane (I named it I-Cane) that helps the visually impaired people to navigate amidst obstacles using sensors and embedded systems and the other was a telecommunication protocol that helps the hearing impaired people to interact with normal analog telephony by doing speech to text translation,” he recollects.
Both these academic projects were well received and published and he was invited to prestigious academic houses like MIT, University of Portsmouth, and Seattle Robotic Society to present his innovations. Also, these inventions for which he holds a patent helped him gain credibility with citations in all leading national papers such as The Hindu and television media. “These macro inventions that I was able to do as a student affirmed two things in my journey. One that there are problems around me all the time, and if I can employ technology and engineering, I can solve it and there is a social acceptance that will follow and take my small solution globally. Secondly, the thinker and doer in me is a single person. I see a problem and I can fix it,” he says. And his 16 year stint in the USA helped him gain practical learning and gave him the confidence to interact and build multiple successful products across several game changing companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, AT&T and the like.
The American Dream: Early Entrepreneurship and Startup Lessons
His first thrust in entrepreneurship came when he graduated from Iowa State and his thesis was called ‘Price variant e-commerce model based on haggling’ that he had observed in the streets of India. “I created something called Fadaggle with some limited angel investor support. Fresh out of college, wanting to be the next Steve Jobs, I was so wrong. I never knew how to launch a product and made so many rookie mistakes that I can write four volumes on it. Hard lessons of failure, but I was proud we built a product though we didn’t make a single sale. Despite this, it gave me confidence that I could build a team, create a vision, and make it real and I had lots to learn. So, I went to the best product organisations to learn and work for nearly 16 years,” he admits candidly.
He lived across Pennsylvania, Iowa, New York City, Chicago, Seattle and did a fair share of town hopping. “It was good times and lots of great friendship. My life was average just like any other person working for Big Tech. Beer Pongs and American Football after work. I did meet Tom Brady once and shook his hands and I would call that as the highlight of my American life and love for American Football,” he reminisces.
Reconnecting with Indian Roots: Launching Bhookle to Preserve Culinary Memories and Build a Global Impact
While his first journey to the US was the sole purpose of observing and learning, the idea was to return home and make an impact. “But it took me 16 years to return. I am thankful for the time I spent in the US with some of the most brilliant and curious minds building the future of technology there. I take this as my grooming time,” he says.
His return to India primarily happened for two reasons. “My mom died due to COVID in 2020 and I was getting restless wanting to get back to building startups, and India was and is in the most exciting phase of technology penetration and per-capita spending.” His mother’s passing left a huge gap in his life and he started craving for his mother’s cooking but could not find any app that had them. “They all had the same 15-20 dishes which we call Indian. The more I missed my Amma and the more I realised that food is the memory I carry of her. So, I took it as a personal mission for everyone like me and maybe not, to get Amma’s food (at least 90 percent of the authenticity) in India and that became Bhookle.”
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And this is why Bhookle brings together passionate home chefs and customers who appreciate food made with care. Bhookle is not a restaurant platform, aggregator, or food business, but as Ravichandran says, they are in the business of memories and people. This idea really captures the essence of what Bhookle is all about.
Looking ahead, Ravichandran is excited about taking the company to new heights. Over the next three years, his plan is to expand Bhookle into major Indian cities and then reach out across APAC, MENA, and the West. “I am also toying with a few ideas beyond Bhookle but curtailing my excitement until I make Bhookle a stable platform,” he says, showing that he’s all about getting the fundamentals right first.
His vision of being a global Indian is simple yet powerful: “Thinking and solving problems not just locally but with a world purview. Expanding possibilities and building connections and solving a problem for the entire ecosystem but one step at a time,” he signs off.
