Curefoods acquires Binny Bansal-backed Yumlane for undisclosed amount

Ankit Nagori is the founder of Curefoods, which operates EatFit and several other brands.

Accel-backed cloud kitchen operator Curefoods has acquired Yumlane, a Mumbai-based pizza maker, the two companies said in a joint statement on October 30.

In 2021, Curefoods took the franchisee rights for Yumlane for the South India market. A year after that, Curefoods also bought a 10 percent stake in the pizzeria to strengthen its hold in the market. The full acquisition of the Binny Bansal-backed food startup comes months after Curefoods raised Rs 300 crore from Binny Bansal’s Three State Ventures.  It is also in line with the company's plans to expand its portfolio.

The acquisition will also help Curefoods sharpen its B2B focus. “Yumlane’s extensive B2B client network and their positioning as a value leader in the pizza category align strategically with our brand portfolio,” Gokul Kandhi, Chief Business Officer of CureFoods said in a prepared statement.

The two companies did not disclose the contours of the deal.

Yumlane is however a small brand which has raised just over $8 million from Orios Venture Partners, former Flipkart executive Binny Bansal, Shaadi.com’s Anupam Mittal and a clutch of other investors. It had clocked a revenue of around Rs 4 crore in FY21, according to Tracxn, a private markets data provider.

The acquisition will however help Curefoods, a house of brands, which is currently in the midst of an offline expansion.

Founded by Hitesh Ahuja, Rueben Ghosh and Rahul Kumar in March 2016, Yumlane said it has a distribution network across the top 15 cities in India. Its client portfolio includes Barbeque Nation, Frozen Bottle, and 7-Eleven, a global convenience chain with 47,000 stores worldwide.

Curefoods, on the other hand, was founded by Ankit Nagori, a former Flipkart executive and runs brands like EatFit, CakeZone, Nomad Pizza, Sharief Bhai Biryani and Frozen Bottle, among others.

The Bengaluru-based startup has raised over $150 million from Chiratae Ventures, actors Varun Dhawan and Nora Fatehi, and Singularity Ventures, among others.