Curefoods Secures Sebi Nod For ₹800 Cr IPO Amid Investor Exits

Bengaluru-based cloud kitchen operator Curefoods has received Sebi clearance for an ₹800 crore IPO that combines a fresh issue and an offer-for-sale. Early backers including Iron Pillar, Accel and Chiratae are selling stakes, even as the company doubles revenue to ₹746 crore in FY25 while still posting a ₹170 crore loss. Key investor concerns: heavy reliance on aggregators (82% of revenue), high attrition, and continued cash burn.

Sebi’s approval clears the regulatory step for Curefoods to tap public markets with an ₹800 crore offer. That’s a milestone for a cloud-kitchen operator that has shown rapid topline growth—revenue nearly doubled from ₹382 crore in FY23 to ₹746 crore in FY25. But the timing is delicate. Several early investors are offloading shares via the offer-for-sale (OFS), signalling a partial exit that shifts ownership and market perception ahead of a debut. For public investors, the combination of fast growth and persistent losses creates a classic growth-at-a-cost story that demands tighter scrutiny.

The OFS includes notable names: Iron Pillar, Crimson Winter, Accel, Chiratae Ventures, and Curefit Healthcare. Iron Pillar is the largest seller (1.91 crore shares), followed by Crimson Winter (97.6 lakh), Accel (45.7 lakh), and Chiratae (36.6 lakh). Curefit itself is exiting a smaller tranche. The differential sizes and historical acquisition prices mean Iron Pillar is likely to realise the largest exit value. Founder and CEO Ankit Nagori is not selling any shares in the public issue — a signal of management retention — but the prominence of VC exits will be a talking point for analysts and IPO investors.

How Curefoods plans to use proceeds: the operational playbook

Of the primary proceeds, Curefoods has earmarked funds across growth and balance-sheet repair: expanding cloud-kitchen capacity (₹152.5 crore), debt repayment/prepayment (₹126.9 crore), funding Fan Hospitality (₹92 crore), lease deposits (₹40 crore), and marketing (₹14 crore). There is also an optional pre-IPO placement of up to ₹160 crore that could affect the fresh issue size. The allocation shows a mix of growth capex and deleveraging — a typical pre-IPO posture — but it also exposes how much the business still requires capital to scale operations and control cash burn.

Curefoods’ revenue trajectory is notable: ₹382 crore (FY23) → ₹746 crore (FY25). Yet losses persist. Net loss in FY25 was ₹170 crore (roughly flat year-on-year), while EBITDA losses narrowed substantially from ₹276 crore to ₹58 crore — an encouraging operating improvement but still a gap from profitability. The company is burning cash at a unit economics level where it spends ₹1.27 to earn every ₹1. That ratio and the lingering negative net income are the core risk variables investors will weigh against topline growth.

Key investor risks: platform dependence and attrition

Two structural vulnerabilities stand out:

• Aggregator dependence: Aggregators (Swiggy, Zomato) contributed 82.2% of FY25 revenue. Any change in platform policy, commission structure (currently ~18–22%), or algorithmic visibility could materially compress margins and order volumes. Heavy reliance on third-party channels exposes Curefoods to commoditisation and price pressure outside its direct control.

• High attrition: Employee churn remains extremely high — 111.73% in FY25 after surpassing 120% in prior years. Such churn inflates hiring costs, creates operational inconsistency in kitchens and logistics, and hampers institutional memory at scale.

Both risks are not theoretical; they affect cost of service, fulfilment reliability, and ultimately customer retention—metrics that matter to public investors.

VC exits via OFS are not uncommon; they are liquidity events that signal maturation. But large sell-downs by early investors will influence market sentiment on listing day. For institutional buyers, the question is whether Curefoods’ improving EBITDA (narrowed losses) and aggressive capacity plan justify the valuation. For retail investors, the pitch will be growth, brand footprint (EatFit, CakeZone, Krispy Kreme partnership), and future profitability. The IPO will test which narrative the market prefers.

Curefoods’ Sebi nod opens a new chapter: a move from venture-funded scale-up to a company judged by cash flows and governance. Revenue growth is real and fast, but the persistence of losses, heavy aggregator reliance, and hyperactive attrition make the road to sustainable public-market success less certain. For investors and industry watchers, the IPO will be a live case study in whether operational fixes and capital allocation can turn cloud-kitchen promise into public-market performance.