Ghost Kitchens India, a cloud kitchen startup that operates brands such as Khichdi Paradise, Wakka Makka and Bhayankar Burgers, has raised $5 million in a Series A round of funding led by Gujarat Venture Finance Limited, according to ETtech report.
The latest funding round, which has a mix of Rs 26 crore in equity and Rs 12.5 crore in debt, adds to the Rs 14 crore that the company has raised in the past, founder and CEO Karan Tanna told ET.
Other participating investors were NB Ventures, LetsVenture, Lead Angels, and existing investors Yuj Ventures, Dholakia Ventures and actor Rana Daggubati.
The firm operates through over 15 company-owned and -operated cloud kitchens in Mumbai and Ahmedabad, and 1,200 internet restaurants across 40 cities in India.
Prior to Ghost Kitchens India, Tanna had also founded F&B franchise management company Yellow Tie Hospitality that scaled to 120 stores in over 18 cities in three years.
Ghost Kitchens India was founded as a typical company-operated cloud kitchen network – commercial kitchens for the purpose of preparing food for delivery or takeout only – at the end of 2019 but soon shut down due to Covid-19 related struggles, Tanna told ET.
Ghost Kitchens India’s cloud or dark kitchen model helps it take an asset-light approach by de-risking itself of infrastructure- and operational expenses-related capital. The company, which today operates 15 scaled-up and 3-4 pilot brands, over a period of time plans to expand from its fulfilment partner programme model to open quick-service restaurants with dine-in facilities in high-street areas with 25 such retail establishments. In 2-3 years, the retail establishments are aimed at making up about 50% of overall revenues, Tanna told ET.
“Now we have a good exposure of where our brands are running well and by how much and that is the reason that we raised the money to scale company-owned cloud kitchen and high-street outlets so we can double down and penetrate across existing local areas,” Tanna added.
The company will also be launching celebrity-linked brands to help with top-of-funnel marketing, he added. In February 2023, it had acquired celebrity Chef Vicky Ratnani’s gourmet cloud kitchen brand called Speak Burgers.
Earlier in 2022, Ghost Kitchens India had acquired a technology company, WTF, which helped it create its proprietary technology, helping them to manage their business end-to-end and to make it more efficient to generate organic revenue, improve customer experience and profitability.
“We were particularly excited about repeat customers of their brands and the in-house tech that they have which helps to optimise the aggregator algorithm better for organic growth,” Kamal Bansal, managing director, Gujarat Venture Finance, said in a statement.
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