Cloud kitchen start-up Curefoods has acquired a majority stake in milkshake brand Frozen Bottle.
Founded by Cultfit co-founder and former Flipkart executive Ankit Nagori in 2020, Curefoods has acquired 20 food brands to date, including the likes of EatFit, YumLane, CakeZone, and Great Indian Khichdi. Earlier this year, the start-up raised $62 million in funding from Iron Pillar, Chiratae Ventures, Sixteenth Street Capital, Accel
Partners and Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal.
With the latest acquisition, the company aims to make Frozen Bottle a one-stop shop in the milkshakes and dessert category and expand its portfolio to include a mix of Curefoods’ snack brands.
Started in 2017 by first-time entrepreneur Pranshul Yadav, Frozen Bottle has become a trendy cold milkshakes and desserts brand with a presence in over 25 cities. It operates more than 110 outlets and offers a wide selection of signature thick shakes, milkshakes, and one-of-its-kind ice cream jars that are 100 per cent vegetarian.
Under Curefoods, the milkshakes brand is set to augment its menu to cater to a wider audience with varying needs, both via physical and online channels. There are also plans to expand Frozen Bottle’s footprint taking it to a total of 50 cities with over 250 outlets.
At present, Curefoods’ dessert portfolio includes brands like CakeZone, Frozen Bottle, Lubov Patisserie, Cupcake Noggins, and Iceberg. Offering a myriad of selections in frozen desserts, healthy Indian desserts, cakes, cupcakes, and more, the house of brands claims to be significantly larger in the online dessert ordering space compared to its closest competitors.
Gokul Kandhi, Chief Business Officer at Curefoods, said: “Over the years, the category of frozen desserts and milkshakes has seen a major boost in India. Adding a highly popular milkshake brand, such as Frozen Bottle, to our dessert portfolio will now equip Curefoods with 5 dessert brands across all categories.”
Pranshul Yadav, Founder and CEO at Frozen Bottle, said: “We are immensely excited to join the Curefoods house of brands and turn the page to a new chapter in Frozen Bottle’s journey. Over the years, we have successfully amassed a consumer base that has come to thoroughly enjoy what we serve. We now aim to ramp up our efforts in becoming the go-to cold dessert brand and also widen our breadth of offerings. We look forward to working with the Curefoods team and bolster their ambitious upward trajectory in the cloud kitchen space.”
Curefoods also recently announced its merger with Mumbai-based Maverix and the acquisition of south India franchise rights of US-based pizza chain Sbarro. Leveraging its multi-brand multi-kitchen model, it aims to significantly expand its footprint beyond the 150 cloud kitchens in 15 cities it operates now.
Source: Business-Standard