Rebel Foods Pvt Ltd, the owner of online kitchen brands such as Faasos and Behrouz Biryani, has acquired a controlling stake in Bengaluru-based chocolate company SMOOR for an undisclosed sum.
The investment, according to Rebel Foods, would help the company grow and extend into new areas.
SMOOR is Rebel Foods’ fourth buyout, with plans to triple its size in 2022-23. SMOOR is now valued at $50 million in the latest round.
“It is a natural evolution for us to grow into the Middle East after this investment,” Vimal Sharma, CEO of SMOOR, said in an interview.
Chocolates, signature cakes, gift hampers, desserts, and beverages, among other things, are sold by SMOOR through its lounges, cafes, kiosks, and own digital platforms, as well as through online aggregator platforms.
Since last year, the brand claims to have grown by over 120 percent, with goals to reach $100 million in annual revenue by 2026.
Vimal Sharma founded the luxury chocolate brand in 2015, and it opened its first store in Bangalore in August 2016. It has stores in Mumbai, Gurgaon, and Chennai at the moment.
“With Rebel Foods’ financing, we’ll be able to penetrate the worldwide market even further, producing innovative and exciting confectionaries in a variety of styles. We are looking forward to the expansion that will result from this development,” Sharma said.
“This investment provides us more confidence that we have been able to continuously identify excellent products,” said Raghav Joshi, co-founder of Rebel Foods.
Rebel uses the now-famous Thrasio-like model for food to invest in, scale, and build third-party food firms. When organisations gather small third-party brands with the goal of scaling them, this technique works.
The investment in SMOOR is part of Rebel Foods “strategic investments,” which included a $150 million investment in December to invest in and acquire brands.
Through a combination of owned and partner brands, it operates over 45 internet kitchen brands in ten countries. It has over 4,000 internet eateries and 450 kitchen locations in total.
Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee founded the company in 2011. In India, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Bangladesh, Rebel is now active.
Rebel operates the Rebel Operating System (OS), a full-stack technology platform that allows its partner brands extend their presence across the Rebel network of over 70 cities in India and around the world.
As part of its Series F investment round in November, it raised an additional Rs 107.64 crore (about $14.5 million).
The additional capital occurred less than two months after it raised $175 million (Rs 1,308 crore) in its Series F round of funding in October 2021, led by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). This round of funding catapulted the company into the illustrious unicorn club, which includes companies valued at over $1 billion.
