Ankit Nagori’s Cloud Kitchen Startup Curefoods Bags $62 Mn

Cloud kitchen startup Curefoods has secured $62 Mn from Iron Pillar, Chiratae Ventures, Sixteenth Street Capital and Accel Partners. Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal also participated in the round. 

“Of the $62 Mn, $52 Mn came in equity funding, and the remaining $10 Mn came in debt financing from Alteria Capital, BlackSoil Capital & Trifecta Capital”, said a statement from the startup.

The startup plans to use the raised amount to continue acquiring cloud kitchen brands across the country. Further, it expects to make greater inroads by geographically expanding its multi-brand kitchens across the country and building a D2C platform for all its brands.

Founded by former Flipkart employee Ankit Nagori, the startup owns multiple brands and runs over 100 cloud kitchens nationwide. Curefoods’ growth in the market has vastly outpaced industry norms, with revenue growing 50% quarter-on-quarter over the last year.

Nagori-who cofounded Curefit along with Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal, later started Curefoods in 2020. 

“Over the next decade, there will be an opportunity to build multiple food brands across cuisines & geographies. With the fund infusion, we plan on expanding across geographies, and meeting newer customer expectations,” said Nagori in a statement.

Curefoods aims to take advantage of the massive opportunities available in the digital-first food market through its ever-growing portfolio of brands.

“Chiratae is pleased to participate in this round backing Ankit and the Curefoods team. Curefoods is a tech-enabled rapidly growing food business characterised by innovation, agility, scale, technology, consumer service, and acquisitions of leading brands. Ankit’s vision to take quality food to a billion Indians in due course excites us,” said Sudhir Sethi, founder & chairman at Chiratae Ventures.

Last week, the startup acquired five D2C businesses, taking the tally of brands to 20 in its kitty. Juno’s Pizza, Cupcake Noggins, Iceberg, Nomad Pizzas, and White Kitchens have been added to its list of brands recently. 

In October 2021, Curefoods had acquired seven food brands — MasalaBox, Paratha Box, CakeZone, Ammi’s Biryani, Olio, Crusto’s and Chaat Street. It had also signed exclusive franchise rights of pizza cloud kitchen YumLane, Indian and Mughlai food cloud kitchen Aligarh House, and biryani cloud kitchen Sharief Bhai.

Curefoods competes with foodtech unicorn Rebel Foods, which operates 450+ kitchens & 4K+ internet restaurants globally across 60+ cities in 10 countries, in the cloud kitchen category. Some of the popular brands under Rebel Foods include Faasos, Behrouz Biryani, Ovenstory Pizza, Mandarin Oak, The Good Bowl, SLAY Coffee, Sweet Truth, Wendy’s among others.

Besides giants like Zomato and Swiggy, who have entered the cloud kitchen market along with Rebel Foods, Curefoods competes with the likes of Food Darzee, Healthie, Box8, among several others.

Curefoods is looking to onboard 25+ brands by mid-2022, and 35+ brands by year-end.