FreshMenu cuts losses by 63%, revenue declines to Rs 104.5 cr in FY20

Foodvista India, which runs cloud kitchen platform FreshMenu, has reported narrowing losses for the financial year ending March 31, 2020 even as its operating revenue dropped.

FreshMenu made a net loss of Rs 11 crore in FY20, which marks a 63% decrease from Rs 30 crore from the previous fiscal, regulatory filings show.

The company cut back on its expenses significantly to narrow losses. Its total expenses stood at Rs 116 crore during the fiscal, down from Rs 171 crore in FY19. Employee benefit expenses were reduced to Rs 26.7 crore from Rs 39.6 crore in the previous year while advertising promotional costs were brought down to Rs 4.2 crore from Rs 12.3 crore.

The Bengaluru-based company’s revenue from operations declined 24% to Rs 104.5 crore in FY20 from Rs 138 crore.

According to a separate filing, the company received shareholders’ approval last month to raise Rs 3.5 crore in a fresh internal round from its existing backers Zodius Technology Fund and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

It had raised Rs 3 crore from Lightspeed Venture Partners and serial entrepreneurs Ganesh Krishnan and Srinivas Anumolu in May 2020. 

Krishnan and Anumolu hold a 30.90% stake each in the company while its founder and CEO Rashmi Daga owns 37.09%.

Previously, FreshMenu raised $500,000 in a bridge round from independent corporate trustee and corporate services provider Vistra ITCL (acting as the trustee of Zodius Technology Fund) in August last year. 

In January 2019, TechCircle reported that Freshmenu had raised $2.94 million in a fresh funding round from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Zodius Technology fund and Ganesh Krishnan of Growthstory.

FreshMenu had put itself on the block last year after facing operational pressure headwinds.  

TechCircle, citing people directly in the know, reported that talks with SoftBank-backed OYO for a potential acquisition fizzled over disagreements on valuation.

Its last major funding round was in January 2016 when it raised $17 million at a valuation of nearly $41 million. Prior to that, it had raised $5 million in a Series A funding round of funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners in early 2015.

Founded in 2014 by IIM-Ahmedabad alumnus Daga, FreshMenu prepares meals and delivers from its own kitchens. It operates on a cloud-kitchen model, where it brings on board chefs to its centralised kitchens to prepare the food and delivers only online.

It primarily competes with multi-brand cloud kitchen companies Rebel Foods, Box8, and InnerChef.