Before diving into AI, Indian startups spent years solving one fundamental problem—saving time. From food delivery and groceries to medicines and daily essentials, convenience became the defining theme of the country’s consumer internet story. Today, almost anything can reach your doorstep within minutes.
But what if the biggest inconvenience isn’t stepping out to buy groceries anymore? What if it’s remembering what to buy, planning meals, coordinating with the cook, keeping track of pantry supplies, and managing countless household tasks that quietly consume hours every week?
That is the problem serial entrepreneur and Dunzo co-founder Kabeer Biswas now wants to solve.
After helping redefine hyperlocal commerce through Dunzo, Biswas is returning to the startup ecosystem with a very different ambition. His new AI venture, M, is betting that the next wave of consumer technology won’t simply deliver products faster—it will eliminate the invisible mental burden of running a home. Starting with the kitchen, the startup aims to build what it describes as an AI-powered operating system for households, handling everything from meal planning and grocery management to coordinating domestic help and, eventually, the entire home.
From Quick Commerce to ‘Mental Commerce’
For nearly a decade, India’s startup ecosystem has raced to perfect physical convenience. Quick commerce players have compressed delivery timelines to as little as 10 minutes, fundamentally changing consumer behaviour.
Biswas believes that chapter is largely complete.
“The question now is: now that everything comes in 10 minutes, what’s next in urban convenience?” he told Moneycontrol. According to him, the next challenge isn’t logistics—it’s the constant decision-making that keeps a household functioning every single day.
Think about a typical weekday morning in an urban Indian home. The cook arrives asking what’s for lunch. The refrigerator is nearly empty. Someone is checking grocery apps while simultaneously attending office calls. Milk needs replenishing, vegetables are running low, and household staff require instructions.
These aren’t physically demanding tasks. But collectively, they create what experts often describe as “mental load”—the invisible planning, coordination and decision-making that keeps a household running.
That is precisely where M sees its opportunity.
An AI That Doesn’t Just Answer Questions—It Runs Your Kitchen
Unlike conventional AI chatbots that simply respond to prompts, M is designed to become an active household assistant.
The company has chosen the kitchen as its starting point because it sits at the centre of daily household management. Through WhatsApp, the AI assistant helps users decide meals, keeps track of pantry inventory, reminds families when groceries need replenishment and coordinates with household staff to ensure everything runs smoothly.
But Biswas’ vision extends well beyond food.
Over time, M intends to evolve into an AI-powered operating layer capable of managing multiple household responsibilities—from scheduling chores and organising domestic workers to automating recurring decisions that consume time and attention every day.
In essence, if enterprise AI is helping professionals automate office work, M wants to do something similar inside homes.
Why the Kitchen?
The kitchen may appear like a narrow starting point, but it is arguably one of the most complex parts of managing an Indian household.
Every day involves deciding meals, checking ingredient availability, placing grocery orders, coordinating with cooks, avoiding food wastage and accommodating dietary preferences of different family members.
For urban households juggling demanding careers and family responsibilities, these decisions repeat endlessly.
By embedding itself into this daily workflow, M hopes to become indispensable before gradually expanding into broader home management functions.
Built Around WhatsApp, Not Another App
One of M’s interesting design choices is its decision to operate primarily through WhatsApp instead of asking consumers to download yet another mobile application.
Since WhatsApp is already deeply integrated into everyday communication across Indian households, the startup believes users will find it easier to interact with an AI assistant in a familiar environment rather than learning a completely new interface.
The approach also reflects a broader trend among AI startups that are increasingly prioritising conversational interfaces over standalone apps.
Early Traction in Bengaluru
Although still in its early stages, M has already begun testing its product with real users.
According to Moneycontrol, the startup currently serves around 150 households in Bengaluru, where it is refining its AI workflows before a wider rollout. Earlier reports had indicated pilot programmes across select premium neighbourhoods in the city as the company validated the concept with affluent urban families.
The initial focus allows the company to closely observe user behaviour, improve automation capabilities and understand whether consumers are willing to trust AI with deeply personal aspects of home management.
Backed by Investors Betting on the AI Consumer Wave
Investor confidence in Biswas’ new venture has been evident from the beginning.
Earlier this year, M raised Rs 102 crore (around $11 million) in seed funding, with backing from Peak XV Partners, Blume Ventures and CRED, alongside several angel investors. The capital is expected to support product development, AI capabilities and expansion of pilot operations.
The funding also marks one of the more significant early-stage bets on consumer AI emerging from India’s startup ecosystem.
A Bold Bet After Dunzo
For Biswas, M represents a fresh entrepreneurial chapter following Dunzo’s journey.
Dunzo transformed hyperlocal deliveries and became one of India’s best-known consumer startups before shutting down operations amid mounting financial challenges and intense competition in the quick commerce market. After a brief stint leading Flipkart Minutes, Biswas has returned to entrepreneurship with a dramatically different problem statement—one centred on artificial intelligence rather than logistics.
Interestingly, the underlying philosophy remains similar.
Dunzo sought to remove friction from everyday life by moving products faster. M is attempting to remove friction from the decisions that happen before those products are even ordered.
The Road Ahead Won’t Be Easy
While the opportunity is compelling, execution remains the biggest challenge.
Unlike ordering groceries or booking deliveries, household management is deeply personal. Every family has different routines, food habits, budgets, preferences and ways of working with domestic staff.
Teaching AI to understand these nuances consistently—and earning enough trust for users to delegate everyday decisions—will require sophisticated personalisation and sustained user engagement.
There is also the broader question of consumer behaviour. While generative AI has rapidly entered workplaces, convincing households to rely on AI for everyday domestic management is still an untested market in India.
That said, if successful, M could create an entirely new consumer technology category.
A New Definition of Convenience
India’s startup ecosystem has spent the last decade making products arrive faster. Kabeer Biswas believes the next decade will be about making decisions disappear.
Rather than asking consumers to spend less time shopping, M wants them to spend less time thinking about shopping altogether.
Whether AI can truly become a trusted household manager remains to be seen. But in choosing to tackle the invisible mental labour behind everyday living, M is attempting to redefine convenience itself—not by delivering groceries in 10 minutes, but by making sure you never have to wonder whether you need to order them in the first place.
