Inside IPO-Bound Curefoods’ Cloud Kitchen Network & Acquisitions Playbook 

When Ankit Nagori launched Curefoods in 2020, the cloud kitchen market was on the verge of an inflection point. Even though Rebel Foods had been around for years before that, many expected a mini boom within this space to match the investments in food delivery by aggregators.

But no one perhaps expected Curefoods to outpace its closest rival Rebel Foods to the IPO post.

The company’s rise to prominence in this space has come in a flash, and its upcoming IPO will set the benchmark for the next generation of quick service restaurants and cloud kitchens.

The INR 800 Cr IPO is expected to put Curefoods’ expansion drive into top gear, and its acquisition-centric strategy for growth will be put to the test again.

Indeed, a significant portion of Curefoods’ potential IPO raise is expected to go towards adding 66 new cloud kitchens for existing acquired food brands with Olio’s Pizza & Krispy Kreme getting the most attention.

“Our model is very simple. We continuously identify potential gaps in the market and acquire brands that cater to specific customer needs.

Our business is about creating infrastructure that can serve different brands, and then we work on either creating or acquiring or taking franchising rights for brands in specific categories,” Nagori told Inc42, breaking down Curefoods’ current emphasis ahead of the public listing.

Over the years, Curefoods has created and acquired several brands that form its cloud kitchen empire.

The above big brands aside, Curefoods also acquired the franchise rights for international brands such as donut giant Krispy Kreme and pizza chain Sbarro in parts of the country.

The company also expanded internationally, launching its Indian cuisine brand Sharief Bhai in the United Arab Emirates in 2024. Plus, recently the company signed a pan-India franchise agreement with global ice cream brand Papacream.

As a result of this multi-brand push, Curefoods’ order volumes grew from 11.38 Mn in FY23 to 15.82 Mn in FY24, and further to 18.23 Mn in FY25.

But acquisitions are a tricky play, because profitability has still eluded Curefoods.

For context, Curefoods reported a net loss of INR 170 Cr in FY25 against a total revenue of INR 775.4 Cr. The company’s losses at INR 172.6 Cr remained steady compared to FY24 when it reported a total income of INR 635 Cr. So there’s some operating leverage at play here for the cloud kitchen giant.

However, questions could be asked about whether Curefoods’ acquisition and expansion-heavy strategy will hurt the bottom line in the future, especially if the IPO proceeds will go towards capex.

Nagori added, “The idea is to keep adding more menu items across segments and categories depending on the opportunity and category dynamics.”

So it looks like Curefoods is not about to slow down any time soon; how exactly will the profitability play out then?

How Curefood Plans Acquisitions

The first thing we need to understand is how Curefoods is able to execute an acquisition-heavy model without leaking capital and costs all over the place.

Nagori explained how the company looks for product-market fit for specific geographies. “We already have the central kitchen and cloud kitchen infrastructure, so when we acquire a brand, we immediately get new menu items. With these new items, we attract more customers and generate more demand. The only reason we pursue acquisitions or partnerships like these is to expand our supply, add more SKUs, and introduce more products and more new products means the higher the revenue per asset,” he added.

Having a central kitchen and linked cloud kitchens means Curefoods is able to analyse gaps in utilisation that can be filled by new brands.

A typical Curefoods kitchen operates for 17 hours a day, and certain time slots work better for certain categories. Of course, the company has to carefully select brands that will be able to plug these gaps for most of its top markets. It wouldn’t make sense to bet on a brand that can only work in one region or city, for example.

“Another important condition is that the entire supply chain of the brand we acquire should integrate with ours. If they have a completely different supply chain model, we don’t proceed with the acquisition,” he added.

The third pillar in the acquisition strategy is targeting brands that can have some overlaps but a distinct positioning for new customer segments.

For instance Curefoods owns and operates Nomad Pizza where the average dish is around INR 800–900 as well as Olio Pizza where the average price is around INR 400. Similarly, in the healthy food space, Curefoods has Eat.fit, which is more protein-focussed, and Millet Express, which offers a separate gluten-free menu.

This allows the company to play in two different price segments, something that Curefoods rival Rebel Foods first attempted with Behrouz Biryani and The Biryani Life.

The Supply Chain Advantage 

Currently, Curefoods operates through 502 service locations across over 70 cities in India, which includes five central kitchens, 281 cloud kitchens, 99 kiosks, 122 restaurants and 13 warehouses.

In order to maintain this scale, Curefoods’ supply chain is central to its growth story.

“If you’re running 500 locations, it becomes even tougher because the number of variables that go into operations every single day is immense. All aspects of the supply chain need to be ready because even if one ingredient is missing, it becomes a challenge,” the CEO added.

Most of the cooking happens in the central kitchens in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. And par-cooked food is dispatched to cloud kitchens on the company’s proprietary cold supply chain.

All of Curefoods’ cloud kitchens are multi-brand in nature, so at any given time, they could be given a new brand to operate. This depends on the demand for that category in each region.

Setting up a new cloud kitchen involves a detailed process with considerations such as location intelligence, demand mapping, accessibility for logistics, and manpower availability, where the company leverages partners such as Zomato and others to figure out the right locations.

Beyond the central and cloud kitchens are kiosks and restaurants that bring Curefoods brands to the retail masses in malls, tech parks, and commercial hubs.

All of these touchpoints are linked through the supply chain network. The supply chain is built around technology, and leverages sales data, historical trends, market insights, and customer projections for demand forecasting.

Further, Curefoods also uses AI and centralised technology across kitchens, supply chain, and customer operations to forecast demand, optimise production and inventory, sync orders in real time, track logistics, and personalize marketing, enhancing efficiency and customer satisfaction.

As Nagori highlighted, the key areas where technology is applied include procurement, production, planning, distribution, and point-of-sale tracking. Waste management is integrated into the planning framework — whatever is not consumed is accounted for in advance to minimise losses.

Curefoods also has end-to-end farm-to-fork tracking. For example, the system tracks how much tomato is procured, how much gravy is made from it, and how many dishes are produced, enabling precise inventory management.

The cold chain is especially vital for Curefoods. Products made in the central kitchen have an average shelf life of 72 hours, and some cloud kitchens may be located in different cities altogether.

So it was essential for the company to create a cold chain to cater to demand in Chennai or Hyderabad, when its central kitchen is in Bengaluru, or for Chandigarh and Jaipur from Delhi.

Cooked food goes through a blast-chilling process and is packaged in food-grade, vacuum-sealed packs before being sent in temperature controlled vehicles to cloud kitchens. There it sits in a chiller again, and is only brought out when orders come in.

“This entire cold-chain system has become the backbone of our business model. It has taken maximum effort, time, and energy to perfect it. Now that it is in place, it acts as the foundation of our entire network,” added Nagori.

Will Profits Follow Scale?

The supply chain and the tech stack for the cloud kitchen model has indeed been built at a steep cost over the past five years. For Curefoods, which has raised more than $210 Mn in funding, the IPO is a litmus test of this journey.

The company earned INR 775.4 Cr in FY25 with a net loss of around INR 170 Cr. In comparison to the INR 172 Cr net loss in FY24, there was a marginal improvement, but this is not enough to bring public markets investors on your side.

Especially not in the current market environment, where even profitable companies have faced headwinds. However, Nagori is optimistic.

While he accepts that the business operates on a capital intensive model, with investments in kitchen infrastructure, this is balanced by the savings on the front-of-house operations, he added. “Compared to quick-service restaurants (QSRs), this model is leaner — no dine-in areas, décor, or customer-facing overheads.”

The founder also believes that over time, the constant optimisation of costs and process standardisation have helped Curefoods improve efficiency and reduce losses while growing revenue.

Nagori also argued that soon economies of scale will start kicking in. Curefoods’ key cost centres are procurement, kitchen ops, and central costs such as technology and manpower, he claimed, and the company has looked to mitigate these with its operating leverage.

“Procurement efficiency improves with scale. Larger order volumes allow better negotiation and efficient supply chain design. Kitchen costs can be controlled through centralised operations like in our case, and technology integration has enhanced visibility and coordination across kitchens, which in a way pays for itself,” he said.

Adding more brands and menu items has driven incremental revenue and improved operating leverage, since fixed costs remain stable due to the hub-and-spoke model.

“When scale improves, fixed costs dilute — that’s where profitability starts to kick in,” the CEO added.

Nagori believes success in the food delivery space hinges on customer loyalty, consistent quality, and strong online visibility — the same principles that underpin growth across consumer tech. But cloud kitchens are also tremendously dependent on aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato.

Breaking free from these platforms has been a challenge for even Rebel Foods and the same will be applicable for Curefoods too, especially as food delivery growth remains muted for Swiggy and Zomato.

Curefoods has spent the past five years building the moat around its cloud kitchen empire, and now with the IPO on the near horizon, it’s time to show that this moat matters even despite the high dependency on food delivery players.