Coatue Management to infuse upto $50 mn into cloud kitchen company Rebel Foods

Cloud kitchen company Rebel Foods is set to raise between $47.2 million and $49.8 million from returning investor, technology focussed hedge fund Coatue Management.

The growth stage investment, raised at a price range of Rs 6.39 lakh to 6.74 lakh per share, has New York headquartered Coatue Management holding 7.14% of the company’s preferential shares, a regulatory filing showed on Wednesday.

The fresh capital infusion comes months after the Mumbai-based company closed a $125 million growth round from Coatue Management, New York headquartered investment bank Goldman Sachs and Jakarta-based ride hailing major Go-Jek in August last year. The round had valued the firm at $500 million.

Separately, the startup may also invest about $393,404 in home-cooked food distribution platform FoodyBuddy, according to another regulatory filing. The development was first reported by Entrackr.

Founded in 2011 by Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee, Rebel Foods, formerly known as Faasos Food Services, owns and operates 12 cloud kitchen brands such as Faasos, Behrouz Biryani, Lunch Box and The Good Bowl. With 325 cloud kitchens, the company has operations across India, Southeast Asia and Europe.

In February, Rebel Foods raised about $5 million from venture debt fund Alteria Capital. This took the total debt raised by the company to about $12 million.

The fresh infusion comes at a time when the company's bottomline is suffering, given the high cash burn in India’s food-tech sector. Rebel Foods reported a loss of Rs 130 crore during financial year 2018-2019, from Rs 74 crore a year ago. Revenue grew 108% to Rs 310 crore in the same period.

While Rebel Foods is well ahead in the cloud kitchens game compared to Bengaluru-based FreshMenu, food delivery majors Swiggy and Zomato recently entered the market, creating new competition for the company.

ANI Technologies-owned shared mobility platform Ola acquired FoodPanda to incubate private brands for its cloud kitchen business. In October, it launched its first private brand, Khichdi Experiment.

In India, Coatue Management has also invested in digital payments and lending platform BharatPe, robotic automation firm UiPath, operations modelling platform Anaplan and food delivery platform Swiggy.