Specialty food venture Veeba Foods raises $6 million funding from Saama Capital and DSG Consumer Partners

Veeba Foods, a manufacturer of specialty food ingredients has raised US $6 million in funding, with Saama Capital and DSG Consumer Partners as lead investors. Veeba was founded in 2013 by Viraj Bahl, who prior to this was part of the family that owned Fun Foods where he managed the business as CEO. Veeba specializes in the specialty foods that include sauces, dressings, preserves etc, for both institutional customers, like international brand name restaurants and coffee bar chains, and the retail consumer.

According to a report by India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), a Trust established by the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, the Indian food and grocery market is the world’s sixth largest, with retail contributing 70 percent of the sales. It is projected to grow at the rate of 104 percent, touching US$ 482 billion by 2020. And the Indian food processing industry accounts for 32 percent of the country’s total food market, 14 percent of manufacturing GDP, 13 per cent of India’s exports and six per cent of total industrial investment.Indian food service industry is expected to reach US$ 78 billion by 2018.

“We pride ourselves at being one of the few vendors who is able to co-develop new food offerings with our international name customers by custom developing sauces, dressings etc that meet their specifications in record turn-around times. This approach has helped us win over many of the large named customers in a relatively short period of time. With the fresh capital infusion, we are excited to now enter the retail market in the near future with a range of unique products that will leverage our expertise in the sauces and dressings segment. I look forward to strengthening our on-going association with DSGCP and Yukti and welcome Saama to the Veeba family. I have always believed choosing the right investor is akin to marriage – I feel confident that our investors will provide us invaluable support through the company’s ups and downs,” shared Viraj Bahl, Founder and CEO of Veeba Foods.

“The specialty food ingredients sector in the country is under developed and poised for significant growth in the near term. This growing market needs combined with the belief that the team could build a business rooted in innovation led customer centricity and high quality product were some key reasons to invest in the company. We are excited at the prospect of working with Viraj and DSGCP as Veeba emerges as a leader in defining this emerging high growth food category in its next phase of growth.” said Ash Lilani, Managing Partner, Saama Capital. 

Deepak Shahdadpuri, Managing Director, DSG Consumer Partners, said, "The food services industry is at a point of inflection and Veeba is well positioned to be a leading player with best in class product development, manufacturing and distribution addressing most key market segments. Working closely with clients like KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Taco Bell and Starbucks, Veeba has demonstrated its ability to develop and deliver products for some of the leading and demanding downstream clients."