Cloud Kitchen Startup BOX8 Raises $40 Mn, Rebrands To Eatclub Brands

Cloud kitchen startup BOX8 has raised $40 Mn in a Series D funding round led by Tiger Global. Along with the raised funding, the startup is rebranding itself to EatClub Brands as well. 

Founded in 2012 by Amit Raj and Anshul Gupta, EatClub Brands started as BOX8, a cloud kitchen service that offers Indian meals and ‘meal boxes’. Currently, the startup is a full-stack cloud kitchen company that operates a total of eight brands out of its more than 150 kitchens. 

Its cloud kitchens are spread across five cities in India including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad and deliver 1.5 Mn meals every month from brands like BOX8, MOJO Pizza, GLOBO Ice Cream and ZAZA Biryani. 

“EatClub Brands is re-imagining how kitchens can operate through its innovative tech-first, full-stack cloud kitchen model. We are impressed with the company’s ability to achieve scale and customer loyalty, first with BOX8 and then with MOJO Pizza, while achieving impressive unit economics. We are excited to partner with them as they continue to grow,” said Griffin Schroeder, partner at Tiger Global.

The startup plans on utilising the freshly infused capital for on-boarding talent and building teams that can support its plans to scale its business to more than 500 kitchens in 15 cities. 

Food services is a $65 Bn opportunity in India, growing at a CAGR of 95 and projected to reach $110 Bn by 2025. Within the $65 Bn opportunity, online food delivery only makes up $4.2 Bn. But only 9% of Indian internet users are currently ordering food online, versus 36% in the United States and 50% in China. 

Yesterday, publicly listed foodtech giant Zomato launched Zomato Wings, a platform to connect investors with restaurants. According to a blog post by its CEO Deepinder Goyal, only 25 restaurants and cloud kitchens saw a Series A or larger equity funding round in the last three years in India. A meagre number, considering the fact that India seems to be minting a new unicorn every week.

Earlier this month, Hyderabad-based TTSF Cloud One, a multi-brand cloud kitchen chain from the creators of The ThickShake Factory, had raised $5.3 Mn in a seed funding round led by Brand Capital. The startup plans on utilising the funds towards acquiring more brands and forming more brand partnerships to become ‘India’s F&B Thrasio’.