Rebel with a cause: India’s 31st unicorn

On Thursday, Rebel Foods raised $175 million in a Series F round at a valuation of $1.4 billion, led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), with participation from existing investors Coatue and Evolvence.

Friday October 08, 2021 , 3 min Read

We're just about a week into the last quarter of the year and three startups have already entered the unicorn club.

October’s unicorn rage began with Licious becoming India's first D2C unicorn. Just a day later, CoinSwitch Kuber joined the billion-dollar valuation club, also becoming only the second crypto startup to attain unicorn status.

On Thursday, Rebel Foods raised $175 million in a Series F round at a valuation of $1.4 billion, led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), with participation from existing investors Coatue and Evolvence.

The cloud kitchen startup became the 31st Indian startup to become a unicorn this year, surpassing previous projections.

With the fundraise, Rebel Foods plans to continue growing its international footprint, improve its technology, and focus on brand acquisitions. Last year, the company also inked a deal with American fast-food chain Wendy’s to expand its presence in India.

Claiming to be steadily moving towards profitability, with an annual run rate sales of $150 million, the startup says it is growing 100 percent annually.

Rebel Foods said that it is also eyeing an IPO in the next 18-24 months.

India is currently witnessing an IPO rush. In fact, the IPO market is so hot right now that the RBI has taken note, saying that "the year 2021 could well turn out to be the year of IPOs for the country".

The Interview

How are organisations catching up with the changing dynamics of Customer Experience? Listen to technology leaders from Google Cloud, Cure.fit, PhonePe, CarDekho, and CleverTap discuss the future of seamless customer experience.

Watch this CTO Roundtable hosted in association with Google Cloud India.

Editor’s Pick: Inside Infra.Market’s road to success

Founded in 2016, Infra.Market is an end-to-end construction solutions startup, which takes the entire procurement process online, ensuring quality, organising the vendor base, and bringing transparency in pricing.

The Mumbai-based startup reached the coveted unicorn status earlier this year with its Series C round funding led by Tiger Global, just 20 months after its seed round in 2019. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

An end-to-end communication solution provider

With several communications channels to choose from, small businesses often struggle with lead generation. This is what Jaipur-based NeoDove is trying to solve.

Backed by India Quotient, NeoDove is a tele-calling CRM (customer relationship management) and sales engagement platform that is working with 250 SMEs to help them find and track potential customers to drive sales. Read more.

News & Updates

Ride-hailing platform Ola forayed into the used car segment that will enable customers to buy new and pre-owned vehicles through the Ola app. The Bengaluru-based company expects to scale the reach of the vehicle commerce platform Ola Cars to 100 cities by next year.

The Indian gaming market is poised to reach $6-7 billion in value by 2025 from $1.8 billion presently, according to a report prepared by IAMAI in collaboration with OnePlus and RedSeer.

Actor and entrepreneur Alia Bhatt has invested in Phoola startup that focuses on flowercycling technologies to upcycle cellulose waste and specialises in manufacturing charcoal-free incense and other wellness products.

Reliance Retail Ventures Limited on Thursday said it has entered into a Master Franchise agreement with 7-Eleven to run convenience stores in India. The first 7-Eleven store is set to open on Saturday, in Andheri East, Mumbai, RRVL, the retail arm of Reliance Industries Ltd, said.