Hardeep Singh
Rebel Foods, which owns cloud kitchen brands such as Behrouz Biryani, Mandarin Oak Ovenstory Pizza, and Faasos, is the most recent company to be valued at $1 billion. In the following 18 to 24 months, the firm plans to go public through an initial public offering (IPO).
The firm is now valued at $1.4 billion after raising $175 million in a round sponsored by Qatar Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund. Rebel Food’s series F fundraising round also included Coatue and Evolvence.
Unlike the last wave, which forced Rebel to close 70 per cent of its kitchens for a few months in 2020, revenue is increasing this time because consumers are more comfortable ordering meals online, and state governments recognise it as an essential service.
Rebel owns and operates over a dozen virtual restaurant brands, which it distributes via its own app and third-party platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy. The fresh financing comes less than six months after the Mumbai-based firm received $125 million as part of a $525 million fundraising round.
The additional funds, according to the company’s fund-raising statement, would be used to expand the company’s global reach, strengthen its technical stack, and add new brands to its portfolio. Rebel’s foray into physical distribution isn’t very novel. Prior to implementing the cloud kitchen idea in 2014, the company was a single-brand QSR chain known as Faasos. However, market dynamics have altered as a result of the introduction of meal ordering apps, which offer consumers both convenience and variety.
Rebel Foods was created a decade ago by Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee. The company’s first endeavour was Fasoos, a network of quick-service restaurants (QSRs) specialising in kebab rolls.
The firm has opened in 20 Tier-2 cities, all of which have experienced rapid growth. While demand is increasing in Mumbai and Delhi-NCR, it is not as strong in Bengaluru, as many software experts have returned to their hometowns.
In 2016, the firm switched to the concept of a cloud kitchen. A cloud kitchen, sometimes known as a ghost kitchen, is a commercial kitchen focused on meal delivery. These kitchens have no physical location. Faasos, a chain of quick-service restaurants (QSRs) that served kebab rolls and had an online ordering option, was founded by Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee. A reassessment of the company’s approach was spurred by a combination of expensive rentals and the fact that the bulk of their purchases were done via the internet. They closed their stores in 2016 and switched to a cloud-kitchen-only company, offering a variety of cuisines prepared by cooks working in low-cost facilities.
Freshworks enables businesses to delight their customers and employees quickly and easily. The companny accomplish this by employing a novel approach to developing and delivering software that is low-cost, simple to use, and geared toward the end user.
Freshworks, headquartered in San Mateo, California, has a dedicated team of 13 global sites that serve customers worldwide. It is a cloud-based customer engagement solution provider for IT, customer service, sales, marketing, and HR. Its products include Freshdesk, Freshsales, Freshservice, Freshteam, Freshmarketer, Freshping, Freshstatus, and the Freshworks Neo platform. The products enable analytics, security and administrative solutions, collaboration, real-time event streaming, and customer records.
While financial assistance is necessary, CapitalG has more to offer than just cash. The company’s internal team provides extensive hands-on growth assistance, as well as access to Google and Alphabet experts such as CEO Sundar Pichai. CapitalG works with startups to improve all aspects of business operations, from sales and marketing to artificial intelligence and security. CapitalG, according to Frantz, played a “significant role in Freshworks’ go-to-market,” assisting with digital customer acquisition, an area in which Google had a lot of expertise. Over the years, ov has trained about 1,200 portfolio company personnel in machine learning, engineering leadership, and other areas.
Business software is inconvenient, costly, and difficult to build and maintain. Many days are spent trying to tailor these methods, and getting them to work necessitates the use of costly consulting services. Finally, the solution becomes so complex that businesses must hire full-time staff to oversee it. According to Freshworks, every organisation requires exceptional technology that is ready to use, simple to set up and use, and requires minimal configuration. This promise is met by all of the company’s products, and customer service is second to none. The best part is that getting them to work does not have to be expensive.
Freshworks not only set a lofty objective of servicing businesses of all sizes, including the famously difficult-to-capture SMB market, but it also introduced goods in a field controlled by huge incumbents.
Since its beginning, Freshworks has employed Google Search advertising to expand its customer base in mature markets across the US and Europe. Thanks to a unique worldwide inside-sales technique that reduced the company’s cost of selling, Freshworks was able to boost its digital marketing spend and improve the client onboarding experience. As a result, the business was able to compete directly with its largest rivals.
What kind of services does Freshworks offer?
Freshworks has ten categories listed on their website. We’ll give concise outlines of what they are and what they do rather than going into great depth about what they do. Some of which are as follows:
Freshdesk
Freshworks’ help desk ticketing software is known as Freshdesk. Ticket management, assignment, follow-ups, and prioritisation are just a few of the powerful automations that are available. They provide a variety of reporting choices for support teams to learn how to enhance their techniques. Customers who prefer to address their own difficulties might take advantage of self-service services. This guarantees that agents only deal with challenging matters that demand rapid attention.
Freshcaller
Freshcaller is the call centre solution provided by Freshworks. Freshcaller is marketed to small businesses looking to improve the efficiency of their call centre through sophisticated automations, vanity numbers, global numbers, voicemail, multi-level IVR, a call centre mobile app, a dashboard, and call metrics. All of this contributes to small teams remaining relevant by delivering a positive customer and user experience. This enables agents and clients to concentrate on what is most important: the problem at hand, rather than the hardware in place.
Freshsales
Freshworks’ sales automation software is known as Freshsales. Freshsales, like our top-rated sales automation software solution, is a strong provider. Freshsales has AI-powered lead scoring, phone, email, and automation tools, as well as reporting and analytics.
While financial aid is critical, CapitalG offers so much more. The company’s internal team provides considerable hands-on growth support as well as access to Google and Alphabet specialists, including CEO Sundar Pichai. From sales and marketing to artificial intelligence and security, CapitalG assists entrepreneurs in simplifying all elements of their business.
Freshworks’ “go-to-market” was aided by CapitalG, according to Frantz, by assisting with digital customer acquisition, an area in which Google had extensive knowledge and experience.
The premiere of Freshworks in the United States was a great hit. It did, however, have all of the required elements: It is a multibillion-dollar corporation with operations in more than 120 countries. A substantial chunk of the company’s leadership staff is made up of Silicon Valley veterans. Among the company’s investors are Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital. In addition, the company’s sales and growth numbers have always been strong.
It would be wise enough to see how it further performs in its future endeavors.
