Big Bang Food Tech raises Rs 4.8 cr by Artha Venture Fund; acquires 34 Chowringhee Lane

Food brand aggregator Big Band Food Tech (BBFT) has raised ₹4.8 crores in seed funding led by Artha Venture Fund, India's first early-stage micro-VC fund.

Angel investors such as Harsh Jain, Ashneer Grover, Chitra Radhakrishnan, Lakshmi Alagappan, Anand Kumar, and Nikhil Aggarwal also participated in the round.

“We are excited with our pace of growth and have observed massive whitespace in the F&B segment that we plan to conquer. As Urban Indian’s annual spend on outside food goes from < 100$ to China and Brasil’s >600$, there will be multiple breakout Indian brands,” said Abhimanyu Singh Rana, Co-founder, Big Bang Food Tech.

The Thrasio-style restaurant rollup startup will acquire more brands and expand its base with 90+ outlets.

Besides, the 4-person founding team will deploy part of this round to upgrade its supply chain technology and grow the team. Big Bang Food Tech is AVF's 17^th investment from its ₹225 crores micro-VC fund.

It has also acquired the legacy brand 34 Chowringhee Lane, which operates 37 outlets, with this funding round.

The brand’s monthly orders have grown by 50% since December 2021.

Based on the e-commerce rollup model, the ‘house of food brands’ will acquire 8 more legacy brands by FY 2022-23, with a targeted cumulative revenue of ₹120 Cr generating 100+ direct and indirect jobs across the country.

“I believe that we have backed the four founders best suited to create a restaurant rollup giant. The founders are food connoisseurs with a solid tech background bringing in a cumulative experience of over a century which is a rare combination for such a startup,” added Anirudh A Damani, Managing Partner, Artha Venture Fund.

BBFT leadership team comprises the who’s who of the F&B industry. While ISB grad Sonia Sinha is a two-time founder (Tupples and Sequoia-backed DoubtNut), Manu Mohindra, with his 30+ years of experience, can be credited for reimagining Wendy’s product offering for their entry into India, as well as redeveloping Barista post its last acquisition, enabling it to grow 50% since. Additionally, Sonia Mohindra had played an instrumental role in opening 50 outlets of the Republic of Chicken from scratch within 60 days, and IITD grad Abhimanyu built and scaled multiple award-winning F&B brands.