Bangalore-based iD Fresh Food (India) Pvt Ltd, a ready-to-cook packaged food company, has raised Rs 35 crore ($5.69 million) from Helion Venture Partners, the company said in a release. As part of the deal, Rahul Chowdhri, partner, Helion, will join the board of the company.
This is the first round of institutional fundraising by iD Fresh Food and it will use the funds to introduce new product categories, enhance geographic growth and expand the team. The funding will also help it expand to 30 cities in five years and the firm aims at doubling the outlet reach from 6,000 in eight cities currently, within a few months.
iD Fresh Food was started in 2005 by IIM Bangalore alumnus, PC Musthafa and his associates Shamsudeen TK, Abdul Nazer, Jafar TK and Noushad TA. It employs 600 people currently.
“iD already sells Rs 7 crore worth of preservative-free food products each month in eight cities and with this round of funding, we are poised to see the next level of growth. It will help our plans to introduce more products and expand to more cities, several of them outside India,†said, Musthafa PC, CEO, iD Fresh Food (India) Pvt Ltd.
“With our unique strengths in distribution and our backend technology, we have perfected the ‘zero-inventory’ model, making sure to reach daily supplies to retail stores based on demand; keeping products fresh and as good as home-made,†he added.
The company has two production plants in Bangalore and one each in Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Mangalore and Dubai (Middle East). iD products are also supplied to distribution centres in Mysore and Pune, and the brand is also available with online grocers like BigBasket.
Spark Capital advised the firm for the transaction.
Helion is an India-focused multi-stage VC firm with over $605 million under management. It invests in businesses that are technology-powered or catering to the Indian consumer services space. Helion’s focus sectors include consumer internet, mobile, technology products, outsourcing, healthcare, education, retail services and financial services.
Early this month, Helion invested an undisclosed amount in online recruitment platform TalentPad.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
