Rebel Foods ties up with Foodpanda for expansion into Southeast Asia

Rebel Foods, as part of its Foodpanda deal, will take its home brands — Faasos, Behrouz Biryani, Lunchbox, etc. — to Asian markets such as Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines.

Mumbai: Rebel Foods, the cloud kitchen which recently turned unicorn, is expanding internationally through its partnership with food and grocery delivery platform Foodpanda.

Through this partnership, which began in December 2019 — for an initial five years — the two companies plan to take Rebel Foods’ homegrown brands such as Faasos, Behrouz Biryani, Lunchbox and others to Southeast Asian markets. Their goal is to launch more than 10 online food brands in over 2,000 outlets across Asia.

A subsidiary of Delivery Hero, a food delivery company in Europe, Foodpanda operates in more than 400 cities across 12 markets in Asia.

The Rebel-Foodpanda partnership is modeled on a brands-as-a-service (BaaS) model which allows Foodpanda’s restaurant partners to plug-and-play Rebel Foods brands and earn additional revenue. In the first phase of the deal, Rebel Foods introduced four brands across six markets — Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines — through the Foodpanda network.

The cloud kitchen claims that Rebel Foods’ brands on the Foodpanda app grew 40% month-on-month on average in the past six months, and that more than 200 outlets across the six markets signed up to add these brands to their existing food and beverage (F&B) offerings.

“This Foodpanda-Rebel Foods partnership introduces a new digital-first F&B format in Asia. Foodpanda is always seeking new, innovative ways to change the way F&B businesses operate in a hyper-digitalised economy. We want to push our ecosystem further into the future,” said Pedram Assadi, COO, Foodpanda. “Most importantly, these virtual brands will give our restaurant partners, especially SMEs, new opportunities to earn additional revenue.”

In addition to introducing Rebel Foods’ brands to Foodpanda customers in Asia, the two companies have also worked together to co-develop new offerings under the food bowl brand Honest Bowl.

“Over the years, we have built some category-leading brands and a full stack operating system which integrates culinary expertise, efficient standard operating procedures and technological innovations,” Kallol Banerjee, cofounder of Rebel Foods, said in a statement.

Rebel Foods, which operates a network of cloud kitchens and online food brands, raised $175 million in a round led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the country's sovereign wealth fund, earlier this month. The Series F round turned the company into a unicorn with a valuation of $1.4 billion. It is the 31st Indian startup to achieve the feat this year.