Rebel eyes up to 100 outlets at food courts
NEW DELHI: Cloud kitchen unicorn Rebel Foods, which offers 45 virtual restaurant brands, including Faasos, Behrouz Biryani and Ovenstory Pizza, plans to open 50-100 physical outlets at the food courts dotting India’s highways, airports and office complexes, co-founder Sagar Kochhar said.
The company’s valuation touched $1.4 billion earlier this week after a $175 million funding round led by the sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority and existing investors Coatue and Evolvence. Fresh funding will be used to expand globally, improve technology, and add more brands, Rebel Foods said.
“We’re looking at high walk-in locations. The plan would be to scale this up to about 50-100 stores over the next 12 to 24 months. This can fast-track depending on consumer response,” Kochhar said in an interview.
The food courts called EatSure will house at least a dozen brands from Rebel Foods, as well as third-party brands. Out of the 45 brands it operates globally, some are owned by Rebel Foods while others are partner brands such as Natural’s icecream and Mad Over Donuts. In all, it operates more than 4,000 internet restaurants in 10 countries selling everything from biryani to coffee and dessert. Last year, it won a contract to help fast food chain Wendy’s expand its virtual kitchens in India.
Rebel’s foray into physical outlets is not new. The company started out as a single brand quick-service restaurant chain Faasos, before moving to the cloud kitchen format in 2014. However, market dynamics have since changed, helped in part by the popularity of food ordering apps that offer both convenience and variety. The pandemic has only accelerated consumer adoption to all things tech.
Rebel Foods’ first such food court opened along the Mumbai-Pune Expressway last month. This will serve food from biryani to pizza and cakes to coffee.
A single food court will offer 8 to 10 cuisines under different brands—some that are owned by Rebel and others that use its platform aimed at helping restaurant brands go virtual.
The move also comes as governments ease restrictions imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus and consumers step out to meet friends and return to offices. Yet, the past 18 months have helped lift demand for home deliveries as convenience drove consumers to order everything from food to groceries. The power of offline can’t be denied, Kochhar said. “Convenience is great. You will end up ordering a lot of times. However, there are times when you will step out, you will visit a mall, travel across airports or on expressways,” he said.