Mumbai-based Wonderchef Home Appliances Pvt. Ltd, which sells kitchen appliances and cookware, will receive $5 million from French winemaker Labruyère Eberlé, a top company executive told VCCircle.
Labruyère will pump the funds into Wonderchef over the next two years, Ravi Saxena, managing director of Wonderchef, said.
The company will use the capital to enhance its manufacturing capabilities in India, apart from investing in expansion and branding, he added.
Wonderchef was founded by Saxena, an electronics engineer and IIM-Ahmedabad graduate who has been previously involved with brands like Sodexo Vouchers and Gloria Jean’s Coffees, among others. He joined hands with celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor in 2006 to take the latter's restaurant brands global. Three years later, they launched Wonderchef, a brand positioned for healthy cooking.
Labruyère Group from Mâcon, France has interests in premium wine businesses with vineyards across regions like Burgundy, Bordeaux and Champagne. The Labruyère family has also invested in Indian winemakers Grover Zampa and Sula Vineyards. Besides, it has backed Sapphire Foods India, which operates over 300 Pizza Hut and KFC outlets across the country.
“With a throbbing economy and a burgeoning consumer market, India is a strategic frontier for our group. We want to focus our investments towards growing companies in [the] consumer goods industry in India,†Vincent Labruyere, CEO of Labruyère Eberlé, said.
Wonderchef had raised $5 million from Zurich-headquartered investment firm Capvent in June 2015. Saxena said the company grew over three times within two years of the investment. “This is just the beginning and we are targeting a Rs 500-crore turnover within foreseeable future,†he added.
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