Main Highlights
- BigSpoon, an Ahmedabad-based cloud kitchen business, has secured Rs 15 crore in a pre-Series A round of funding.
- BigSpoon will use this financing to expand its market reach to 30 cities and 50 locations by the end of the fiscal year.
- It operates three cloud kitchen brands, Makhni Brothers, Oven & Grill, and Meals101, as well as an. essential services brand, Makhni Brothers Essentials, which distributes via Zomato and Swiggy shops
- Their objective is to minimize the gap between fine-dine and delivered food experiences.
BigSpoon, an Ahmedabad-based cloud kitchen business, has secured Rs 15 crore in a pre-Series A round of funding from NB VC (Dubai), CreedCap Asia, Zed Capital, and individual investors such as Sanjiv Bajaj, Bhanu Chopra, and Jatin Aneja. Bigspoon will use this financing to expand its market reach to 30 cities and 50 locations by the end of the fiscal year. Furthermore, the cash will be used for recruiting and product development by the business.
Bigspoon, founded in 2019 by Kapil Mathrani and Poojan Thakkar, is a multi-brand, omnichannel cloud kitchen focusing on Tier-II cities. It operates three cloud kitchen brands, Makhni Brothers, Oven & Grill, and Meals101, as well as an essential services brand, Makhni Brothers Essentials, which distributes via Zomato and Swiggy shops.
Bigspoon’s objectives
In response to the financing, Bigspoon CEO and Co-Founder Kapil Mathrani stated, “Our objective is to democratize fresh-prep food throughout Tier-II and III markets in India using its cloud kitchen platform, and to minimize the gap between fine-dine and delivered-food experience.” Bigspoon serves approximately 50,000 diners every month, according to the CEO. With its own brands, Brand-as-a-Service, and Kitchen-as-a-Service verticals, the business has built a full-stack solution for cloud kitchens.
“Our relationship with Bigspoon is motivated by our common confidence in Bigspoon’s Tier-II/III thesis,” said Vishal Pereira, MD, CreedCap Asia. India-II is a 300-city market that is vastly underserved, which they have successfully targeted and cracked. Second, the virtual food court is a forward-thinking concept that encompasses all food-ordering use cases.”
According to Bigspoon, the Indian foodtech industry was valued at Rs 289.36 billion in 2019 and is anticipated to reach Rs 1,868.19 billion by 2025, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 39 percent between 2021 and 2025.
“We are thrilled to work with Bigspoon, who are altering the cloud kitchen scene in Tier-II and III cities with fresher cuisine and tech-led disruption in the F&B space,” said Neelesh Bhatnagar, MD – NB VC. Our expertise in the food-tech area complements their focus on a full-stack solution.”
Bigspoon’s future investments
The firm will also invest in creating technology and robotics-based solutions to simplify their processes, as well as hiring leadership from a variety of industries to help them expand. Aside from that, the firm plans to launch two more brands in order to reach a broader audience and fulfill 50K orders per month by the end of 2020. They’ve effectively expanded to three kitchens in Gujarat, each with three brands. “In the current quarter, we intend to debut in four more cities and invest in efficient technologies in food production, customer experience, and inventory planning,” Mathrani added.
The firm claims that targeting Tier II locations has helped it maintain positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) since the advertising and client acquisition costs are significantly lower than in Tier I areas. Furthermore, the logistical setup in Tier-II cities is significantly easier, allowing them to traverse greater distances in less time. Mathrani said that it takes longer to go 4 kilometers in Mumbai than in any other Tier-II city.
BigSpoon Foods works with food aggregators Zomato and Swiggy, as well as its own fleet, which is powered by Mumbai-based hyperlocal and logistics company Grab-A-Grub. For weekend/weekday employment, the business also employs a few delivery partners on its own.
Cloud kitchens are predicted to have a market value of $1.05 billion by 2023. According to the research, cloud kitchens are typically reliant on platforms like Swiggy and Zomato for delivery, awareness, reach, and customer experience. As a result, these food aggregators bear the majority of the operational costs such as marketing, discoverability, and delivery. Hoi Foods, Rebel Foods, Box8, and other well-known cloud kitchen networks operate in India.