CLOUDY KITCHEN

With significant user traction and investor interest, the cloud kitchen business is entering the inevitable phase of disruption, but with no clear winners yet

- BINU PAUL

$7.5-8 BILLION

Estimated value of India’s online food ordering market by 2022, according to a 2020 report by Google and Boston Consulting Group

$2-3 BILLION

Estimated value of the cloud kitchen industry in India by 2025, according to RedSeer Consulting

“THERE ARE 28 meal occasions in a week. You cannot expect one brand to be fulfilling every customer’s needs on all occasions.”

With that thought, Ankit Nagori found the key ingredient in the recipe for his next venture. Curefit, the health and fitness startup Nagori co-founded in 2016 with Mukesh Bansal, hived off its cloud kitchen vertical, EatFit, in October last year. Nagori swapped his stake in Curefit for majority ownership of EatFit. And EatFit became the first and the largest brand in Curefoods, the parent entity he created in 2020 to roll up popular food brands. Today, Curefoods owns and operates 10 brands from 90 kitchens across 10 cities.

“Food is very diverse. Within every category, there could be different flavours and price points. We feel if we have to do justice to a full-fledged customer base, we need as many brands as possible,” says Nagori.

The consolidation of food brands is the newest business model promising to spice up the cloud kitchen party, similar to how e-commerce was redefined by Thrasio—the USbased start-up, valued at $10 billion, which rolls up popular brands on Amazon’s marketplace. What was a private party comprising a handful of internet-first restaurant players a few years ago is now the new growth frontier that almost everyone in the food services business wants to have a stab at.