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Rebel Foods to adapt Thrasio-like model

Rebel Foods will $150 million in strategic brand investments and acquisitions in India and globally, according to a statement from the company on Tuesday.

“The investment pool will be used in the next few quarters, to scale up existing and new partnerships with around 40+ Indian and international brands,” the statement added.

Rebel Foods, which became a unicorn in October 2021, seeks to invest, scale and grow food brands with a promise to address more customer food missions “by adapting a Thrasio-like model for food”.

Rebel Foods operates the largest network of internet restaurants with more than 45 owned and partnered brands in India, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines, and Bangladesh. It operates 4,000+ internet restaurants, and plans to grow its presence to 100 cities globally.

Klub announces $26.4 million fund for consumer and SaaS ventures

Klub, a leading revenue-based financing (RBF) platform, announced a Rs 200-crore ($26.4 million) fund called Aceler8 to invest in consumer and SaaS businesses. 

Aceler8, a SEBI-registered Category II Alternative Investment Fund, will cater to growth-stage and late-stage D2C brands, recurring-revenue digital businesses, and SaaS companies, Klub said in a press release on Tuesday. It will invest between Rs 50 lakh to Rs 20 crore in digital businesses for their marketing, inventory, and capex spends.

“Our Revenue Based Financing Fund, Aceler8, is a disruptive addition to our platform in-line with our mission to provide fast, flexible and scalable capital,” said Anurakt Jain, Co-founder and CEO of Klub.

Klub, which has facilitated 250 investments in digital businesses, raised $20 million in October this year.

Netflix reduces rates for members in India

OTT app Netflix has reduced its charges for members in India, the company announced. Mobile access is now at Rs 149 per month, the basic plan at Rs 199 per month, the standard plan at Rs 499 per month, and premium at Rs 649 per month.

“As Indians, we love great entertainment,” said Monika Shergill, VP-Content, Netflix India. “Whatever your mood, tastes or plan, Netflix is now even more accessible. Whether you choose Aranyak on Friday, Money Heist on Saturday, or Dhamaka and Sooryavanshi on Sunday, you can watch all of Netflix on your mobile for Rs 149, and on any device starting at Rs 199.”

The full story is here.

Wherehouse launches 12-hour fulfillment for D2C brands

Wherehouse.io, a supply chain platform of micro-warehouses, launched 12-hour fulfillment services for D2C brands in Delhi-NCR. The startup, founded by Vaibhav Chawla, Jeevan Prakash, and Lavelesh Sharma, in October 2020, plans to extend the 12-hour fulfillment service in other metros soon.

The 12-hour fulfillment service went live in Delhi-NCR with 25 D2C brands, according to a press release from Wherehouse.

Wherehouse has built a network of hyperlocal and third-party partners to offer same-day, next-day delivery. It has a network of 2,500 warehouses in 12 cities that cater to help D2C brands fulfill same-day delivery by storing inventory closer to customer clusters of D2C brands.

Same-day deliveries will catalyze order volumes for D2C brands while being closer to the end customer, Vaibhav said. “The way we are growing is a testament to the trust that we have from our partner brands towards our faster fulfillment services across tier-I and tier-II cities,” he added.

CashFlo adds enhancements to dynamic discounting platform

CashFlo, a digital supply chain finance platform, added three features, namely milestone-based financing, deep-tier financing, and a corporate treasury-cum-multi-funder platform, according to the startup.

CashFlo, founded by Ankur Bhageria and Dushyant Agarwal in 2018, helps vendors and dealers to get access to affordable short-term capital, and improve bottom lines of buyers by enabling a frictionless flow of working capital to the supply chain. It operates a network of 2 lakh micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and 50 leading Indian corporates.

The latest enhancements will increase the percentage of buyers’ spends discounted, according to CashFlo. “Historically, in the Indian market, 10-20 percent of spending covered by dynamic discounting programmes was considered good; CashFlo has been able to increase this coverage to as much as 50 percent,” the press release stated.

CashFlo raised Series A funding led by Elevation Capital in 2019.

Yotta Infrastructure appoints Milind Kulkarni as CTO

Managed data centre company Yotta Infrastructure announced the appointment of Milind Kulkarni as Executive VP and CTO.

Milind has more than 26 years of experience in leading large-scale IT operations and project planning. He will lead the engineering and technology team of more than 250 to manage 24×7 IT operations, according to a press release from Yotta Infrastructure.

Sleepy Cat opens first store in Bangalore

SleepyCat, a sleep solutions venture founded by Kabir Siddiq in 2017, will open its first offline store in Bangalore.

“We picked Bangalore for our very first store since a majority of our customer base is from here, and we’ve received a lot of requests asking about a retail store. A robust, well-developed omnichannel model is the way forward for SleepyCat,” said Kabir.

SleepyCat plans to set up eight stores in 2022 at malls and prime locations in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi.