Curefoods announces merger with Maverix 

Curefoods, a cloud kitchen company that houses brands like EatFit, CakeZone and Aligarh House, has announced its merger with Maverix.

While the two companies did not disclose the deal value, the transaction was a combination of cash and equity. Maverix does not hold a 50 per cent stake in the joint entity but it is said to be the largest deal done by Curefoods. Shripad Nadkarni, Founder Director at Maverix, will be joining the Curefoods board as an observer along with Accel Partners who is a common investor in both Maverix and Curefoods.

“Overall, we will keep adding and changing the board in the coming quarters and years as per the needs of the business. But, there are representatives from Maverix on the Curefoods board now,” Ankit Nagori, founder at Curefoods told BusinessLine. Post the merger, Nagori will continue to hold the CEO position in the business. 

Maverix presence

Mumbai-based Maverix is a food tech player which has raised funds in the past from the likes of Accel Partners, Zephyr Peacock, and Swiggy. Maverix operates over 50 outlets across Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. Prior to the merger, Maverix had annual revenue of more than ₹50 crore per annum. The company was not making profits but according to Nadkarni, they were close to profitability. All Maverix employees will be joining the joint entity after the merger.

This merger takes Maverix’s market presence to 125 kitchens across 12 cities catering to over 10 cuisines. Curefoods, which currently operates more than 15 food brands, will assimilate Maverix’s marquee brands that include Great Indian Khichdi, Canteen Central and Home Plate. 

“I think there are a lot of synergies that we see, supply chain is one area where we have done a lot of work and demand forecasting, getting wastages down to best in class levels or below 2 per cent in fresh foods. So these are things that we bring to the merged entity along with leveraging Ankit’s (Nagori) expertise in building internet-first brands. In terms of geography, Curefoods were strong in Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Hyderabad and Chennai and we had our strengths in Bombay, Delhi. So it made for a good merger,” said Shripad Nadkarni, Founder Director at Maverix. 

Merged entity’s potential

Talking about potential earnings from this merger, Nagori said, “We have been doing some mathematical modelling on this. Maverix has 50 plus kitchens, we have Eatfit infrastructure or Eatfit kitchens in more than 67 per cent - 68 per cent of those geographies, which means that if we were to merge these kitchens, the throughput of every kitchen will grow 2x and every one of those kitchen will start generating massive profits. So mathematically, we should be profitable with the merged entities, within this quarter itself.” 

Curefoods recently announced its acquisition of five food brands in January 2022 namely – Juno’s Pizza, Cupcake Noggins, Iceberg, Nomad Pizzas, and White Kitchens. It also recently closed a funding round raising $62 million from Iron Pillar, Chiratae Ventures, Sixteenth Street, Accel Partners, and Binny Bansal. Curefoods commenced operations in 2020 and operates brands like EatFit, Yumlane, Aligarh House Biryani, Masalabox and CakeZone.

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