Rebel foods, which operates plethora of cloud kitchen brands, is the latest Indian startup to cross the billion dollar valuation. The Mumbai based startup announced on Thursday that it has raised $175 Mn in a Series F round led by Qatar Investment Authority with participation from existing investors Coatue and Evolvence. The fresh funding has pushed the startup’s market valuation to $1.4 Bn.
Rebel foods becoming unicorn marks the hat-trick, since three new startups have embraced the coveted club during the last three consecutive days. Licious, CoinSwitch and now Rebel Foods. Over all, Rebel Foods is the 31st unicorn of India.
Founded by Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee, Rebel Foods has come a long way. Started out as chain of Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) that sold kebab rolls under the brand name Fasoos, the startup decided to pull down the shutters down on its offline business. The high rentals and other adversarial factors propelled the company to make this decision and switched completely to cloud kitchen business.
Under the cloud kitchen business, the company introduced several brands that have resonated with foodies and has eventually taken the company to never before heights. Behrouz Biryani, Mandarin Oak and Ovenstory Pizza are some of the brands that have done extremely well.
The company also aggressively operates in the international market, operating nearly 45 brands across 10 countries. Following the Series F round, Rebel Foods is likely to further increase its international footprint.
Rebel Foods’ co-founders have already made it clear that they are vying for an IPO in the next 18th months. If things work out then it may go for an overseas listing and list the company either on NYSE or Nasdaq. However, if things don’t work out then it will go for a domestic listing.
