Exclusive | Cure.fit’s Ankit Nagori to raise Rs 100 crore for Thrasio-like food roll-up play

In 2020, Ankit Nagori acquired a 70-80 percent stake in Eat.fit. [Representative image]

Ankit Nagori, co-founder of Cure.fit and one of India’s best-known startup executives, is in talks to raise Rs 100 crore to build a house of food and cloud-kitchen brands. This come nearly a year after Nagori swapped his stake in Cure.fit to take control of its cloud kitchen arm Eat.fit, sources said.

The funding round is being led by venture firm Iron Pillar, which is investing Rs 40 crore. Other angels and venture firms are expected to contribute to the deal, which is nearly done, said these people, who requested anonymity.

Last year, had Nagori acquired a 70-80 percent stake in Eat.fit, the cloud kitchen firm meant to promote healthy eating, in exchange for his 7.6 percent stake in Cure.fit. Eat.fit had scaled down significantly mid-last year, shutting down operations in 12 cities due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since then, operations have recovered, although it is unclear how many cities it is operating in currently. Eat.fit has about Rs 2-3 crore revenue a month, these people said.

Nagori and Iron Pillar did not respond to queries seeking comment.

While firms such as Rebel Foods have built a slew of cloud-kitchen brands by starting each brand themselves, Nagori plans to acquire up-and-coming online food brands listed on food-delivery platforms Swiggy and Zomato. This approach is similar to the one followed by US-based breakout startup Thrasio, which acquires top-rated and fast-growing sellers on Amazon, helping them with technology, digital marketing and sales chops to turbocharge growth.

While this approach is relatively new in food delivery, these e-commerce roll-up plays have also caught fire in India, with over $300 million being invested in such startups, based only on their promise and little else.

“Ankit didn’t originally pitch it to investors as a Thrasio-play, but that’s how they saw it. And since the theme is so hot, it's a good way to interpret it,” said a person close to the deal.

“Swiggy and Zomato are so big today, the restaurants listing on them are creating a sub-economy unto itself, which can be acquired and grown into something larger- a portfolio of cloud kitchen brands,” the person added.

Before co-founding Cure.fit, Nagori served as chief business officer of online retailer Flipkart, and was among the key leaders in the company after founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, and CEO Kalyan Krishanmurthy.

In June, salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group acquired a minority stake in Cure.fit for $75 million. Co-founder and CEO Mukesh Bansal joined the Tata Group to spearhead its digital initiatives.