Chef’s Basket Expects To Raise $20 Million For Expansion Of Its Products

Chef’s Basket, a Mumbai-based startup, is expecting to raise $20 million in funds to increase its presence in a number of additional food categories. The food startup currently has several products in its noodles category and hopes to diversify its products by introducing dips and sauces as part of its brand. 

Funding

Chef’s Basket is owned by Fizzy Foodlabs and was founded in 2012 by three IIT Bombay batchmates. The company had already raised $6 million in a series A funding last year from SAIF partners and Haresh Chawla, India Value Fund Advisor’s partner to expand its products portfolio and increase its distribution channels. The company hopes that new product launches and entering the export market will ultimately lead to a funding round of $20 million. Varun Jhawar, co-founder, Fizzy Foodlabs, said, “By early next year, we should be ready to raise $20 million as we want to have more food in the convenient format in the FMCG segment.”

New Launch

Chef’s Basket is currently launching kid friendly products under its ready-to-eat segment with lower price as compared to its normal offerings. With the new launch along with its existing product launch, the company hopes to have a sustained presence in the growing food market. “We expect the Indian food market to develop fast and move from commodity-led products directly into convenient formats like ours which can be part of a department store like what is offered in Waitrose in the overseas market,” added Jhawar. 

Export Market

The products from Chef’s Basket has a presence in over 14 cities and the company is ready to target the international market with its sauces and dips. The lucrative export market could provide a greater revenue stream and name recognition in the ready-to-eat category. “We already have sales of about ₹2 crore in a month but now we want to take our products to the overseas markets. While we launch world foods for India, we also want to take India to the world,” Jhawar added. 

Product Quality

Chef’s Basket’s product development is overseen by 12 chefs who are responsible for coming up with new and innovative products. Manish Tirthani, co-founder of Chef’s Basket, said, “These chefs have been associated with famous restaurants like Little Italy, Spaghetti Kitchen, Sancho’s, Renaissance (Fratelli Fresh) and India Jones (Trident).” The company has also partnered with e-commerce websites such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal for a digital presence of its products for its consumers.