Cross Border Kitchens Pvt. Ltd (CBK), which runs an internet-driven multi-brand food and beverage company, has raised angel funding.
The funding has been led by Shreedhar Gupta, an angel investor who has over 20 years of experience in setting up and running a startup and joint-venture businesses in several sectors, CBK said in a statement.
The New Delhi-based company did not disclose the identities of the other investors who took part in the angel round. Also, It didn’t reveal the amount it raised.
The firm says it plans to have a multi-city presence in the next 18 months, with a target of seven cities. The company also plans to have over 570 live point-of-sale locations and is targeting a capital expenditure of Rs 18 crore and is also looking to create between 2,000-2,500 employment opportunities.
“We are an Inventive Culinary Community that utilizes technology, culinary art, marketing, and operational excellence to deliver a memorable gourmet experience,” CBK co-founders Ishita Yashvi, Mayank Singh, Ahsan Qureshi, and Mohit Mehta said.
They added that Gupta’s investment would help the startup scale its growth.
Separately, Gupta said he was confident in his investment in CBK because of the strength of its management team.
CBK, which was launched in early 2019, says it is currently marketing seven operational brands with an additional four in the pipeline for the next month. It currently services between 10,000-12,000 orders a month and claims it will achieve a revenue of Rs 4 crore per month by the end of this financial year.
Its brands span cuisines and target markets. Some of these products include Aim Burger, The Meal Bowl, Chutney India, East End Co., and Bromomo.
Cloud kitchens and investor capital
The funding in the company marks another investment bet on a cloud kitchen-focussed company. The business model has taken off in the past few years, with its asset-light and low-fixed-cost approach proving attractive to potential cap table members. The presence of delivery aggregation platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy has also led to big cheques being written for cloud kitchen companies.
One of the biggest recipients of funding in this space so far has been Rebel Foods Pvt. Ltd, which owns brands such as Faasos and Behrouz Biryani. In August last year, it raised $125 million (around Rs 868 crore) from Goldman Sachs, Indonesian ride-hailing firm Go-Jek and US-based investor Coatue Management.
In September, regional cuisine-focussed Zesty Kitchen raised Rs 3 crore (approximately $422,085) in angel funding from a clutch of investors including former Abbott India managing director Rehan Khan, ITC Ltd divisional chief executive agribusiness Sanjiv Rangrass, Cleanmax managing director Kuldeep Jain and Suhail Sameer, the chief executive officer at RP-SG FMCG.
That month, the US-based Tiger Global Management marked its entry into the QSR segment by leading a $23 million (around Rs 163.7 crore) funding round in Wow! Momo Foods Pvt. Ltd, which operates and owns brands Wow! Momo and Wow! China.
