Curefoods, founded by former Cure.fit co-founder Ankit Nagori has acquired five more food brands as part of its strategies to assemble a house of food brands. The company currently has over 20 brands in its portfolio to have atleast 35-40 by the end of 2022.
Juno’s Pizza, Cupcake Noggins (which it will merge into its existing bakery brand CakeZone), organic ice cream brand Iceberg, Nomad Pizzas, and Jaipur-based multi-brand cloud kitchen White Kitchens are among the recently acquired brands. It plans to expand to 20 cities and 200 locations in the coming year.
“To cater to multiple eating occasions, cuisines, flavour profiles, and regional nuances, we are bringing in a plethora of such companies. Our goal is to equip them further with our tech and business expertise to enable them to continue serving up some great dishes for customers,” Nagori said in a statement.
Curefoods recently closed a $10 million debt round from Alteria Capital and raised $13 million in a round guided by venture firm Iron Pillar, Nordstar, and Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal to acquire and incubate growing cloud kitchen platforms. It is in conversations with investors such as Accel and Chiratae to raise an additional $30 million.
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CakeZone, MasalaBox, and Paratha Box are among the company’s other acquired brands, in addition to its original brand Eat.fit. YumLane, Sharief Bhai, and Aligarh House are among the three brands for which it has exclusive online franchising rights.
Nagori plans to acquire online food brands listed on food-delivery platforms Swiggy and Zomato, while rival Rebel Foods has built cloud-kitchen brands by starting each one from scratch.
Thrasio, a US-based breakout startup, takes a similar approach, acquiring top-rated and fast-growing Amazon sellers and assisting them with technology, digital marketing, and sales chops to help them accelerate growth.
Curefoods’ business model dictates that it must continue to raise debt and equity to acquire these brands. By the end of 2022, it hopes to have a portfolio of 35-40 labels, after which it will focus on consolidation and expansion.
Most of the original entrepreneurs who started these cloud kitchens are expected to stay on, according to Curefoods. The remaining brands will be regional, with only 8-9 being national and others regional (South, West, North and East). Pizza, biriyani, and North Indian cuisine will all be included.
Nagori bought a 70-80% stake in Eat.fit, a cloud kitchen focused on healthy eating, in exchange for a 7.6% stake in Cure.fit last year. Nagori was the chief business officer of online retailer Flipkart before co-founding Cure.fit, and he was one of the company’s key leaders.
