Founded in 2005, iD Fresh Food is a Bengaluru-based fresh food products company which has a portfolio of a wide range of products. The fresh food player has recently raised Rs 507 crore in a Series D round of funding led by NewQuest Capital Partners along with participation from existing investor PremjiInvest.
Commenting on the fundraise, Jaipal Singal, Chief Financial Officer, shares that this particular fundraise is a milestone for them as it is the company’s largest ever fundraise so far. The funds will primarily be utilised for expansion into new geographies. The company is planning for a factory in Hyderabad and another factory is under construction in New Delhi which should be up and running by the first quarter of the new financial year, according to Jaipal.
“We have also started our shipments in the US through distributors,” he says. In terms of international expansion, the company is primarily looking at three regions- US, UK and Southeast Asia. Additionally, GCC is also an important area or region of focus for iD Fresh Food.
Jaipal Singal, CFO, iD Fresh Food
Jaipal explains that iD Fresh Food started out as a batter company and then they slowly started diversifying into paratha, paneer, curd, coffee, and other categories. “We already have a chapati portfolio but we’re launching a homemade paratha portfolio,” he says. Paneer is one of their newer categories which was launched 2-3 years ago but currently they sell Rs 4-5 crore worth of paneer a month. Additionally, the company introduced the curd category just about a year ago and within a year, they were selling Rs 2-2.5 crore worth of curd, he says.
He goes on to explain that at iD Fresh Food, a separate team comes up with new products every month and they end up launching one or two products a year. He informs that by the end of the current financial year, plain triangle parathas will be out in the market. Apart from that, the company has also been trying to aggressively grow the coffee category.
On acquisitions, Jaipal mentions while they are not actively looking for acquisitions, they are open to the idea. “If something interesting comes up, with the war chest we have now, we won’t be closed to it,” he says. He adds that the company is likely to touch Rs 500 crore on a run rate basis. This year, they grew by 40 percent and they plan on maintaining that number next year as well.
Lastly, Jaipal shares that iD Fresh Food commands the market in the core-categories which are batter and paratha. “We have very strong gross margins on those two categories and those two categories still are 75 percent of our total business,” he says. This year the company’s focus will be on Delhi. “Delhi will be a large market for us, and it has a very large potential,” says Jaipal. Apart from that, iD Fresh Food is also starting to focus on Kolkata as a market and it will be the focus area after Delhi next year.
