Singapore’s Temasek Holdings is close to buying 20-25% stake in Rebel Foods for $180-200 million, three people aware of the development said, making it the biggest shareholder of the homegrown cloud kitchen chain.
Temasek will purchase the stake from Coatue Management, Lightbox and Peak XV, the people cited above said on the condition of anonymity. Rebel Foods, which operates cloud kitchen brands such as Faasos, Behrouz Biryani and Mandarin Oak, is planning an initial public offering in the next 12-18 months, the person added.
Temasek subsidiary Jongsong Investments Pte. Ltd will acquire the stake, a Rebel Foods filing on Monday with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) showed. While Temasek declined to comment, Peak XV, Lightbox, Coatue and Rebel did not respond to emailed queries for comment.
Rebel Foods, which claims to be the world’s largest cloud kitchen network, joins a long list of IPO-bound companies witnessing secondary stake sales by early investors. Companies such as Urban Company, Swiggy and Lenskart too have seen secondary sales ahead of planned IPOs.
The founders currently hold around 12% stake in Rebel Foods, while Qatar Investment Authority holds around 9.9%.
According to a July report by DC Advisory, there has been a surge in secondary and buyout deals involving profitable companies since the beginning of 2023. Such transactions accounted for approximately 50% of the total deal value between January 2023 and June 2024, with this figure climbing to 62% for deals exceeding $50 million.
“There is a small primary component too as part of this funding round,” the person cited above said. While the primary round was raised at a valuation of $1.4 billion, nearly the same as in its last round, the secondary shares were bought at $700-750 million, the second person quoted above said. According to him, the company is likely to raise more fresh capital as part of the current round.
In October 2021, the company had raised $175 million in its Series F funding round from investors led by QIA at a valuation of $1.4 billion.
While the company did not respond to queries seeking comments, a Temasek spokesperson declined to comment. Peak XV, Coatue and Lightbox spokespersons did not respond to queries either.
The person cited above added that most of the fresh funding will be used to expand Eatsure, its food court business. The company has been focusing on this format, and recently tied up with fast food chain Wendy’s in India. It currently operates under 10 EatSure formats in different cities selling everything from biryani to pizza, cakes and coffee, and plans to open more in the coming years.
According to a July report by DC Advisory, there has been a surge in secondary and buyout deals involving profitable companies since the beginning of 2023.
Founded in 2011 by Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee, Rebel Foods operates cloud kitchen brands such as Faasos, Behrouz Biryani, Oven Story Pizza, Mandarin Oak, The Good Bowl, SLAY Coffee, Sweet Truth and Wendy’s, apart from operating offline stores in India. In all, it operates over 450 kitchens in over 70 cities. It has a portfolio of over 45 brands across multiple countries including India, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and the UK.
The company reduced its losses to ₹378 crore in FY24 from a net loss of ₹657 crore the year before, driven by better margins and economies of scale across its portfolio, Mint reported in August. Its revenue from operations saw a modest rise to ₹1,420 crore in FY24, up from ₹1,195 crore the previous year, while expenses remained flat at ₹1,857 crore, the report said.
