 "Rebel Foods")
India clocked its 31st unicorn on Thursday. Rebel Foods, the world’s largest internet restaurant company, said it has raised $175 million in a Series F round led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar with participation from existing investors Coatue and Evolvence. This round catapults the company to a unicorn status with a valuation of $1.4 billion, up from about $800 million last year.
“While we are excited about becoming the next unicorn, our focus continues to remain on improving customer experience the Rebel way,” said Piyush Kakkad, chief financial officer, Rebel Foods. “This round of funding will be re-invested in building our technology, increasing our global presence and also acquiring new brands. Rebel Foods is working towards an IPO in the next 18-24 months.”
Rebel Foods is the first firm in India which has become a unicorn in the cloud kitchen space. A 'cloud kitchen' is one that does not offer a dine-in facility and accepts food orders only through an online ordering system. Globally, Rebel Foods competes with Taster in France, Keatz in Germany, Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick’s start-up City Storage Systems and London-based Karma Kitchen.
Food delivery firms themselves such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Swiggy had also entered the cloud kitchen space. In India, Rebel Foods also competes with Ola Foods, the food business arm of the SoftBank-backed ride-hailing firm Ola, which had expanded its network of technology-enabled kitchens. Ola was expanding its network of cloud kitchens to serve more customers.
Founded in 2011 by INSEAD alumni Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee, Rebel Foods operates the largest number of internet restaurants worldwide and on this network. The Mumbai-based company, known for brands like Faasos and Behrouz Biryani, has built over 45 brands (own plus partners) across 10 countries - India, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines and Bangladesh. It operates over 4000 internet restaurants.
The company has disrupted a century-old industry of traditional restaurant business. It has done this by building a full-stack technology-enabled platform - Rebel Operating System, thereby catering to multiple food missions. With the influx of fresh funding, Rebel Foods will continue to focus on growing their international footprint, technology and brand acquisitions. This latest fundraising will also allow Rebel to deliver on its vision of bringing the highest quality brands across food missions to customers globally.
“The food-tech space has evolved towards better personalization, innovation, and complete transparency which Rebel Foods continues to pioneer,” said Ravi Golani, chief strategy officer, Rebel Foods. “With this round of funding, we will continue to serve newer customer food missions powered by technology and automation.”
Rebel Foods operates over 450 kitchens globally across more than 60 cities over 10 countries. The company has successfully built multiple $20 million restaurant brands over the past few years with multiple category-leading brands such as Faasos, Behrouz Biryani and Ovenstory Pizza. Rebel Foods is steadily moving towards profitability with Annual Run Rate sales of $150 million, growing 100 per cent year-over-year and is eyeing an IPO in the next 18-24 months. Goldman Sachs acted as the exclusive Financial Advisor and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas acted as the Legal Advisor to Rebel Foods on this transaction.
Globally, the internet restaurant space was already witnessing momentum even before the pandemic hit, due to the inherent advantages of cost and scalability compared to brick-and-mortar restaurants. The past year has only accelerated the trend, with a greater portion of dine business now transitioning to delivery.
Early this year in an interview, Rebel Foods co-founder Kallol Banerjee revealed the company plans to scale up operations of building and running virtual restaurant brands globally, with rising adoption of its services after the pandemic. The firm had said it is betting big on expansion to global markets such as West Asia (especially Saudi Arabia), Latin America, Russia, and Europe.
Until this fresh funding round, Rebel Foods had raised a total of $342.3 million from investors, including Goldman Sachs, Sequoia, Coatue Management and Indonesian ride-hailing company Go-Jek.
Rebel Foods is also expanding the scope of its business through franchises. In December 2020, US fast-food chain Wendy’s Company formed a strategic partnership with Rebel Foods to expand Wendy’s presence in India over the next decade.
As part of the expansion plans, Rebel Foods will partner with Sierra Nevada Restaurants to develop and operate about 250 Wendy’s cloud kitchens across India, and Sierra Nevada will develop 150 traditional Wendy’s restaurants. The firm is also forming similar partnerships with local and national brands such as Natural Ice Cream and Mad Over Donuts.
