Exclusive: Rebel Foods raises third debt in 2022

Cloud kitchen brand Rebel Foods has raised Rs 55 crore in a debt round from InnoVen Capital and Trifecta Capital. This is the third debt fund for the Pune-based company in the past three months.

The board at Rebel Foods has passed a special resolution to issue 5,500 Series E non-convertible debentures at an issue price of Rs 1,00,000 per debenture to raise Rs 55 crore, a regulatory filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) shows.

InnoVen Capital injected Rs 30 crore while Trifecta Ventures pumped in Rs 25 crore in the round. With this, Rebel Foods has raised Rs 225 crore in debt in 2022 across three rounds.

Rebel Foods, which claims to run more than 4,000 cloud kitchens across 45 brands such as Faasos, Behrouz Biryani, and Ovenstory Pizza, also has operations in  Indonesia, UAE, UK, Singapore, and Malaysia.

The Sequoia-backed company entered the unicorn club after raising $175 million in its Series F round led by Qatar Investment Authority in October 2021. It also raised around $14.5 million as a top-up of Series F round in November last year.

Soon after the fundraise, it also announced a $10 million worth ESOP liquidation program for eligible current and former employees. According to the company, over 150 current and former employees of Rebel Foods were given an opportunity to liquidate their vested options.

Rebel Foods registered a decent growth of 2.1X in the scale to Rs 859 crore in FY22 from Rs 406 crore. Its losses during the period also soared 54.9% to Rs 564 crore. As per Fintrackr’s analysis, sales of products (food items) formed 98% of the total operating revenue whereas its major expenditure includes the cost of materials, employee benefits, and advertising and promotions.

Like Rebel Foods, several growth-stage companies have raised money via debt and convertible notes during the funding winter. The list includes the likes of Udaan,  Dunzo, LEAD, Byju’s, Perfios, HomeLane, Ather Energy, and MobiKwik.