Cloud kitchen platform Box8 raises $3.9 mn from returning investors

Bengaluru-based Poncho Hospitality, which owns cloud kitchen platform Box8, has raised $3.9 million in a combination of debt and equity from returning investors. 

While the company raised $1.33 million in an ongoing Series C round from Mayfield India II, a $108 million fund, the rest came from IIFL Seed Ventures Fund I via compulsorily convertible debentures, regulatory filings showed.    

Mayfield India II is the second India-dedicated fund of Menlo Park, California headquartered venture capital firm Mayfield Fund. It has earlier invested in fresh meat platform Licious and online grocery delivery platform Milkbasket. The company also has other funds, Mayfield XII LP and Mayfield Fund I, which have invested in companies such as Matrimony.com, Tejas Networks and Geodesic Techniques. 

IIFL Seed Ventures Fund I is the first seed fund of financial services provider IIFL Wealth Management. It has also invested in companies such as Fynd, NowFloats and Bluestone.com. Another IIFL group company, called IIFL Asset Management, floated its second seed fund in July last year, according to a VCCircle report.

Earlier this month, Trifecta Capital also invested $102,810 in Box8 in the Series C funding round, regulatory filings showed.

In April last year, the company raised $15 million in the Series C round led by Alibaba Group-backed technology vehicle eWTP Ecosystem Fund, with participation from returning investors Mayfield and IIFL Seed Ventures Fund. The company aimed to use the capital to expand to other cities such as Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad by replicating the cloud kitchen model, founder Amit Raj had told TechCircle then. 

In December last year, Box8 raised $1.6 million in a debt round from venture lender Trifecta Capital in three equal tranches.

Raj founded Box8 with fellow IIT alumnus Anshul Gupta in 2012. It is a full-stack online food delivery services company, which controls all aspects of its service, such as meal preparation and delivery of the food. 

As of December last year, the startup claimed to serve more than a million meals every month from over 110 outlets in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Gurugram.

The cloud kitchen space has recently gained traction from investors. 

Last week, Coatue Management-backed Rebel Foods, which owns 10 cloud kitchen brands including Faasos and Behrouz Biryani, was in line to raise $50 million from the hedge fund. 

In December, HungerBox raised $12 million in a Series B round from new investors Paytm and NPTK Emerging Asia Fund. 

In November, Hyderabad-based business-to-business food and hospitality startup Food n i raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by Sanjay Jesrani, founder and CEO of angel investment advisory firm Go North Ventures.

In October, ANI Technologies, which owns ride hailing platform Ola, launched its first cloud kitchen brand Khichdi Experiment. The Bengaluru-based company was also in the process of restructuring its food delivery business unit Foodpanda India to transform it into a cloud kitchen platform.

Other players, such as food delivery platforms Zomato and Swiggy, also recently entered the market.