Curefoods Pvt Ltd, a cloud kitchen startup floated by Cure.fit Co-founder Ankit Nagori, has announced $62 million fundraising from existing investors Iron Pillar, Chiratae Ventures, Sixteenth Street Capital, Accel Partners and Binny Bansal.
While $52 million came in equity funding, $10 million came in debt financing from Alteria Capital, BlackSoil Capital and Trifecta Capital, the company said in a statement.
Curefoods plans on utilising the investment to continue acquiring major cloud kitchen brands across the country. Additionally, the company expects to make further inroads by geographically expanding its multi-brand kitchens across the country, and building a D2C (direct-to-consumer) platform for all its brands, it added.
Earlier this month, Curefoods acquired five D2C food brands, taking its total number of brands in the portfolio to 20, and eyeing 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. 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,” said Ankit Nagori, Founder, Curefoods.
In October last year, Curefoods bought out seven brands, just after it bagged its Series A funding round.
Earlier in August, it had raised $13 million (Rs 96.2 crore) as part of its Series A funding round, led by Iron Pillar, a mid-stage-focused venture capital firm.
“We are excited to double down on our investment in Curefoods. There is a massive opportunity to build large national and regional food brands in India, and 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,” said Devavrat Jatia, Vice President at Iron Pillar.
With the latest fundraise, Curefoods has raised $72 million in equity and $16 million in debt so far, a company spokesperson confirmed.
Curefoods commenced operations in 2020, and operates brands like EatFit, Yumlane, Aligarh House Biryani, Masalabox and CakeZone. It has over 100 kitchens across 12 cities in India.
The company said it has capitalised on its rapid growth rate, transforming into the country’s second-largest cloud kitchen company in quick time. The company owns multiple brands, and runs over 100 cloud kitchens nationwide.
“Curefoods’ growth in the market has vastly outpaced industry norms, with revenue growing 50% Q-o-Q over the last one year. As an industry leader, Curefoods aims to take advantage of the massive opportunities available in the digital-first food market through its ever-growing portfolio of brands,” the statement said.
“India’s food landscape is evolving rapidly with online delivery platforms processing millions of orders daily. This allows unique food brands, previously limited by distribution or shelf space, to scale both locally and regionally in a manner we have not seen before. Curefoods is led by an experienced and extremely execution-focused team," said Rashmi Kwatra, Founder & Managing Partner at Sixteenth Street Capital.
“Their house of brands platform will allow individual food brands to navigate the challenges of scaling, and leverage off each other’s scale to build larger, more profitable and more durable businesses,” she added.