Charcoal Eats in advanced talks to raise Rs 40 crore

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Mumbai-based quick service restaurant (QSR) chain Charcoal Eats is in advanced talks to raise around Rs 40 crore through institutional venture capital funds, according to a top executive of the company.

''We are in the process of raising a Series A round. The agenda is twofold. Around Rs 22-23 crore will be utilised as capital expenditure for setting up new outlets and at least Rs 10 crore will be marked for marketing and branding purposes," Krishnakant Thakur, COO and Founder of Charcoal Eats told Moneycontrol in an interaction.

He, however, declined to share the names of the investors.

The round is expected to close in the next couple of months.

Charcoal Eats last raised Rs 5 crore in a pre-series-A round in May 2018 from high net individual investors such as Rajesh Ramanathan, Head Global Growth of Mondelez.

Founded in 2015 by Anurag Mehrotra, Gautam Singh, Mohammed Bhol and Krishnakant Thakur, the company currently has 43 outlets across 12 cities and plans to expand to 250 outlets by March 2020. Of these, 150 will be owned by the company and 100 franchised.

Interestingly, it said almost 77 percent of the business generated was from online orders, while just 23 percent from the dine-in or takeaway facility.

Going by this pattern, 80 percent of the 250 outlets are planned as express outlets from where customers can avail takeaway or online delivery services, while the remaining 20 percent will also have dine-in facilities.

VC funding for QSRs chains has increased phenomenally in the past couple of years. Last year, QSR chain Wow Momos raised investment from Fabindia Managing Director William Bissell and is now reportedly in talks to raise an additional Rs 150 crore through fresh funding. Similarly,  Burger Singh which specialises in Indianised burgers is also reported to be in talks to raise Rs 50 crore.