Online-first bakery brand Bakingo said Friday it has raised $16 million (around Rs 130 crore) from homegrown private equity firm Faering Capital in its first round of external funding.
With this investment, Bakingo is looking to strengthen its distribution footprint by expanding from 75 dark kitchens to 150 and entering 10 new cities, the company said in a release.
The company is also planning to open exclusive brand stores for customers to experience its products and to invest in technology to enhance its production, supply chain and forecasting capabilities.
Bakingo was founded in 2016 by Himanshu Chawla, Shrey Sehgal, and Suman Patra, who are also the co-founders of online gifting platform Flower Aura, which has remained bootstrapped so far and is profitable.
At present, Bakingo is present across several cities in India, including Gurugram, Delhi, Noida, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. It has also recently expanded its operations to Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow, and a few smaller cities such as Meerut, Panipat, Karnal, and Rohtak.
The company offers a wide variety of cakes and desserts, including its signature cheesecake, gourmet cakes, jar cakes, and over 100 other items, via its 75 dark kitchens across India.
Faering Capital, which was founded by Aditya Parekh and Sameer Shroff, has raised over $720 million of capital across three funds and has invested with 30 companies. It is currently investing from its $346-million third fund.
Faering invests usually in consumer-facing brands as well as lending firms. Its portfolio companies include Go Digit General Insurance, Niva Bupa Health Insurance, Vastu Housing Finance, Nykaa, Pureplay Skin Sciences (Plum) and Finova Capital.
Bakingo is the PE firm’s second investment in as many months. Last month, it invested $30 million in Vastu Housing through a secondary transaction with Multiples PE.
