Foodlink, a catering and food retail chain company, has raised $8 million (around Rs 59 crore) in a Series B funding round led by Arpit Khandelwal, managing partner at Plutus Wealth Management LLP, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
The Mumbai-based catering firm said it will use the funds to expand its flagship business of luxury catering across new geographies in India and overseas, expand the presence of its luxury banquet brand, JADE Luxury Banquets, to more cities in India, and to scale the casual dining restaurant business through its brands, India Bistro, China Bistro and Art of Dum.
To grow its banqueting vertical, the company said it will focus on leveraging its brand by partnering with investors who will put up “build to spec” facilities - an asset-light approach with low capital expenditure, and will work with a revenue-sharing model. Foodlink plans to increase its banqueting facilities from two, currently in Mumbai and Ahmedabad, to six new facilities in Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh, Delhi and Jaipur in the next two years, the statement said.
The company so far raised $23 million (around 170 crore), including the current round. Previously, it raised $15 million (around Rs 111 crore) as part of its Series A round from OAKS Asset Management in 2017.
“Our current revenue run rate for FY22 is Rs 100 crore, and we expect it to be around Rs 300 crore by the end of FY24. Foodlink plans to leverage technology in a big way to support its growth across geographies. “We have come a long way in organising an otherwise fragmented industry, and we plan to take our management of sales pipeline, quality audits, infrastructure management and resource allocation to the next level of maturity post this round of funding,” Sanjay Vazirani, founder of Foodlink said.
Operated by Foodlink F&B Holdings India Pvt. Ltd, the company was founded by Vazirani in 2003. Foodlink provides banquets and catering services, and also owns and operates casual dining restaurant brands such as India Bistro, China Bistro, Glocal Junction and Art of Dum.
Foodlink has set up eight new restaurant and cloud kitchen units in Dubai and Sharjah in 2021. It has also entered into alliances with Dubai World Trade Centre and other luxury hotels in the UAE, it said in a press statement.
Earlier this year, OAKS Asset Management launched its second fund to invest in mid-sized companies. In November, it backed millet snacks company Troo Good in a Rs 55 crore ($7.43 million) Series A funding.
