Update: Box8 has announced $15 Mn Series C round led by Chinese fund – eWTP Ecosystem Fund. Existing investors Mayfield and IIFL Seed Ventures fund have also participated in the financing round.
The headline is also updated to reflect Box8’s official announcement.
Earlier: Full stack foodtech firm Box8 has begun its Series C round and already raised around $6.2 million (Rs 43.56 crore) from ReDefine Capital. While it seems that the company would be raising more capital in the ongoing round, it also raised a part of bridge round worth Rs 1.28 crore from Trifecta Capital in January this year.
Box8 was valued at about $106 million (Rs 744 crore post money), after raising the first tranche of the Series C round.
For the uninitiated, the Mumbai-based company is one of the handfuls of firm that follows a fullstack model. Besides preparing foods through its network of 100 plus kitchens across Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Gurugram, it also has its own delivery fleet.
The proceeds would help Box8 to strengthen its operations and accelerate expansion to other major cities.
Previously, Box8 had raised at least $3.5 million from Mayfield Fund and a slew of angel investors including Mu Sigma Inc. founder and chief executive Dhiraj Rajaram and Kaushal Aggarwal, co-founder at Avendus Capital.
The Series C round is coming at a time when Zomato and Swiggy along with UberEats have been fighting vigorously to gain market share. According to a rough industry estimate, the trio is burning about $70-80 million every month.
Funding in Box8 is also a validation of the fact that specialised foodtech firms have no problem in finding backers. Another Mumbai-based company Faasos had raised $12 million while negotiating a $100 million round from Sistema Asia and existing investors.
Given that Box8 had received the first tranche of Series C round, it’s expected to raise more capital from existing investors with anticipated participation of new investors.
As we said, Box8 is one of the few firms that has been able to survive the bloodbath in foodtech space. Many startups including Spoonjoy, TinyOwl, and Eatlo among many others had to shut shop as investors turned tepid on the segment.
Last year, Holachef also sold out to foodpand in a stress sale while Freshmenu is in talks with SoftBank-backed OYO for an acquisition. Interestingly, the Ritesh Agarwal-led firm also had ventured into cloud kitchen through a network of kitchens under the brand name – Adrak by OYO and O Biryani by OYO.
Hat tip: paper.vc via RoC filing.
