REBEL'S GUIDE TO SUCCESS WITH FOOD

Having started its journey in 2004 as a quickservice restaurant under the brand name Faasos, Rebel Foods, now a unicorn, aims to expand its footprint. Jaydeep Barman, co-founder of Rebel Foods, talks to Vinita Bhatia about the company’s growth plans, focusing on Tier-II and -III cities, licensing as a strategy and more. Edited excerpts:

- Vinita Bhatia

How has your life changed after Rebel Foods entered the unicorn club in 2021?

For Rebel Foods, the focus has been primarily on the customers and how we could build delightful food brands for them. The focus was to create a company that was loved en masse, more than valuations. The focus was on solving more and more food missions, creating value along the way.

Rebel Foods boasts strong backing from a diverse group of prominent investors both in India and globally, including Peak XV Partners (ex-Sequoia Capital), Qatar Investment Authority, Coatue, Goldman Sachs, Evolvence, RPT Global and Lightbox. Their unwavering support underscores our dedication to achieving success and driving growth within the industry. So, to answer the question—has life changed after becoming a unicorn—no. The focus has continued to be laser-like, and therefore, every move, whether operational, tactical or strategic, has been towards creating value and customer delight.

When is Rebel Foods considering going public?

While I would love to delve into this at the moment, to be honest, this is a work in progress. Can I say we are looking at going public? Yes. Would I be able to put a timeline to it at this point in time? I would rather not, as we are working on the planning, and sharing a timeline would be a little premature.

How is Rebel Foods prepared to deal with slowdown in the pandemic-induced growth in the cloud kitchen industry as more customers prefer to dine in than order out?

We are in the business of building food brands and, as long as our brands are well-loved, we will have customers ordering for them. Our growth rates have continued to be healthy post-pandemic.

During the pandemic, people stayed at home and ordered in; office orders were a bare minimum. Post-pandemic, lots of people returned to offices, and our office orders have started growing significantly.