Curefoods Backs Six-Month-Old Food Discovery Startup Hogr In Seed Round

Bengaluru-based cloud kitchen startup Curefoods, which counts Binny Bansal’s fund Three State Ventures, IronPillar, Chiratae Ventures, ASK Finance and Winter Capital among its marquee investors, has infused INR 10 Cr ($1.2 Mn) into food discovery platform Hogr in its seed funding round.

Curefoods’ latest investment comes within a week of it appointing former Tata Starbucks chief executive officer Avani Davda to its board.

Hogr will use the fresh capital to expand its outreach, refining its features and unveiling updates to elevate the overall user experience.

Founded by Jugul Thachery and Harish Harshan in June this year, Hogr allows users to discover restaurants and dishes through personalised recommendations from contacts, family, friends and fellow food enthusiasts with similar tastes. It provides tailored suggestions for informed dining choices and facilitates building a diverse food network through an easy recommendation system.

Bengaluru-based Hogr aims to revolutionise traditional dish and restaurant discovery. The app streamlines the process, making it easy for users to discover new culinary experiences and share recommendations with a social network of food enthusiasts, Curefoods said in a statement.

“We see Hogr as more than just an app. We strive to create a community where food enthusiasts come together to share the joy of discovering new dishes and places to eat, fostering social connections through this platform,” said Thachery. 

Commenting on the funding, Ankit Nagori, founder of Curefoods, said, “We have noticed that Hogr addresses and streamlines the challenge of discovering new dishes and restaurants, as well as forms a food community via peer-to-peer recommendations. This aspect intrigued us and motivated our decision to invest in this app.” 

Founded by Nagori in 2020, Curefoods houses brands such as EatFit, Cakezone, Nomad Pizza, Sharief Bhai Biryani and Frozen Bottle. The startup claims to be running over 200 cloud kitchens and offline stores that cater to over 10 cuisines across 15 cities in India.

Curefoods has so far raised around $220 Mn in funding from more than 25 investors. It is also on an expansion spree in the food sector. 

It recently acquired foodtech startup Yumlane for an undisclosed amount.

In July this year, Curefoods also made a strategic investment in Hyderabad-based millet startup Millet Express to help it expand and reach a wider audience for millet-based products. 

The investment in Millet Express came two months after Curefoods raised INR 300 Cr ($37 Mn) in a funding round led by Three State Ventures. The round was a mix of primary and secondary equity and debt.

Earlier, Curefoods acquired startups such as subscription-based home-cooked meals startup Masala Box, Indian breakfast startup Paratha Box, online confectionery chain CakeZone, biryani brand Ammi’s Biryani, pizza brands Olio and Crusto’s and online chaat brand Chaat Street.