Cloud kitchen startup Curefoods raises US$62m to fund aggressive growth plans
INDIA – Curefoods Pvt Ltd, a fast-growing Indian cloud kitchen startup, has raised US$62 million from existing investors Iron Pillar, Chiratae Ventures, Sixteenth Street Capital, Accel Partners and Binny Bansal.
A statement from the company revealed that US$52 million came in equity funding while $10 million came in debt financing from Alteria Capital, BlackSoil Capital and Trifecta Capital,
Curefoods plans to utilize the investment to continue acquiring more cloud kitchens across the country in addition to geographically expanding its multi-brand kitchens across the country.
Part of the funds will also be used by the startup to build a D2C (direct-to-consumer) platform for all its brands.
Earlier this month, Curefoods acquired five D2C food brands, taking its total number of brands in the portfolio to 20. It eyes to add another five brands by mid-2022.
“The online food delivery industry in India is going through a revolutionary phase; the market has shown huge prospects and attracted heavy investments in recent years,” said Ankit Nagori, Founder, Curefoods.
“Over the next decade, there will be an opportunity to build multiple food brands across cuisines and geographies. With the fund infusion, we plan on expanding across geographies, and meeting newer customer expectations.”
In October last year, Curefoods bought out seven brands, just after it bagged its Series A funding round.
Curefoods today has over 100 kitchens across 12 cities in India and has capitalised on its rapid growth rate, transforming into the country’s second-largest cloud kitchen company in a quick time.
Devavrat Jatia, Vice President at Iron Pillar believes that there is a massive opportunity to build large national and regional food brands in India.
“The Curefoods team in a short span has demonstrated their capability to identify, acquire and scale these brands through their experience in technology led distribution, and brand building,” Jatia added.
Cloud kitchens, which are cooking facilities devoted to the preparation of delivery-only food, have flourished on the back of the pandemic, according to a report by Economic Times in India.
The number of cloud kitchens on Swiggy tripled between FY19 and FY21 and doubled on Zomato from January 2020.
Industry leader Rebel Foods, the owner of Faasos, Behrouz Biryani and OvenStory, recently turned unicorn.
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