Not Airbnb Or Uber Of India, We Are Rebel Of The World: Rebel Foods CEO

SUMMARY

Rebel Foods cofounder and CEO Ankush Grover said he is proud that a concept born in India is now gaining traction globally

Grover shared that the startup has been able to expand Wendy’s to 200 outlets in just 38 months

Rebel Foods has also jumped on the quick commerce bandwagon with the launch of QuickiES to deliver food within 15 minutes

Rebels Foods cofounder and CEO Ankush Grover has said that the cloud kitchen unicorn’s unique business model is now being replicated globally.

Speaking during a fireside chat moderated by Inc42 cofounder and CEO Vaibhav Vardhan at the Rajasthan IT Day 2025 in Jaipur, Grover said that the startup does not want to be the Uber or Airbnb of India, but a brand that startups globally want to emulate.

“Today, we operate 350 kitchens across 70 cities in India, serving around 2.5 Lakh orders daily. We employ around 8K to 9K people and have expanded internationally with 15 kitchens in Dubai and a dozen in the UK. We are not the Uber or the Airbnb of India, we are the Rebel of the world,” said Grover.

The IPO-bound startup’s cofounder said he is proud that a concept born in India is now gaining traction globally.

Rebel Foods

is a cloud kitchen unicorn which operates brands like Faasos, Oven Story Pizza, and Behrouz Biryani. The startup is eyeing a public listing by next year.

Grover was also joined by coworking startup Awfis founder and CEO Amit Ramani and Minimalist cofounder and CEO Mohit Yadav during the panel discussion on the theme “Navigating The Startup Ecosystem”.

Building India’s National Food Brand

Speaking with Vardhan, Grover shared that food was always his calling and it was this passion that made him venture into the foodtech ecosystem.

“We noticed that while several international food chains were entering India, no Indian food brand had scaled beyond 100 outlets. That’s when we started Faasos. As we expanded, we asked our customers if they had ever seen our physical stores. Surprisingly, 75% of them said they hadn’t. That insight led us to pivot towards cloud kitchens,” the Rebel Foods CEO said.

On Rebel Foods’ rationale behind launching dedicated brands for different cuisines, Grover highlighted that customers generally tend to identify a particular brand with a specific cuisine.

“As we diversified our menu, we realised that customers associate Faasos primarily with rolls. This made us understand that people tend to identify a brand with a specific cuisine. That’s when we decided to launch dedicated brands for different cuisines,” he explained.

Today, the startup operates over 45 food brands, including its own and partnered brands, along with 19 offline stores across more than 80 cities globally.

Streak Of Relentless Expansion

Grover said that expansion continues to be the hallmark of Rebel Foods. He pointed out that the startup has been able to scale up its partner brands like Wendy’s faster than any legacy brand in the country.

Comparing Wendy’s India expansion with Domino’s, Grover remarked, “Four years ago, we also took on the master franchise for Wendy’s, the second largest burger brand in the world. To put our growth into perspective, when Domino’s entered India, it took them 10 years to open 100 outlets. We scaled to 200 outlets in just 38 months”.

Despite this focus on expansion, the cloud kitchen unicorn has been able to control its losses while scaling up revenues.

In FY24, it managed to narrow its net loss by 42% to INR 378.2 Cr from INR 656.5 Cr in the previous fiscal on the back of an increase in its top line and controlled expenses. Operating revenue jumped 19% to INR 1,420.2 Cr from INR 1,195.2 Cr in FY23.

Cracking A Tough Business With Tech

Talking about the challenges while building and scaling Rebel Foods, Grover said quality is the most critical factor in the food business and the startup’s top priority from day one was maintaining quality.

“Food is a challenging industry because it is something we consume directly, making quality paramount. To ensure consistency, we use technology extensively within our kitchens. We have CCTV cameras, temperature monitors, and other systems in place so that if a customer raises a complaint, we can trace it back to identify what went wrong,” he explained.

Rebel Foods also claims to work with more than 8,000 blue-collar workers and train them to maintain stringent quality standards. The unicorn plans to continue focussing on quality as it experiments with quick commerce.

“Reaching out to your customers within minutes requires advanced technology, first-principles thinking, and an unwavering commitment to maintaining the quality and taste of our food—because, at the end of the day, that is what truly matters,” Grover remarked.

This comes at a time when amid the rapidly rising popularity of quick commerce, Rebel Foods has also jumped on the quick delivery bandwagon by launching QuickiES to deliver food to its customers within 15 minutes. With this, the startup is taking on the likes of Zomato and Swiggy, as well as emerging players such as Bengaluru’s Swish and Delhi’s Zing.