Rebel Foods flags slowdown in food delivery growth; bets on 15-minute offering

Consumer spending at restaurants and on food delivery has begun picking up again this month after a slowdown, said Rebel Foods cofounder and India chief executive Ankush Grover. He expects 15-minute food delivery to become a norm.

The startup that owns brands such as Faasos and Behrouz Biryani has also witnessed the growth slowdown, he said. “The growth in the last three months is not as high as it was before, but we are still growing. So, it's not a negative or a zero number for us. It's still growing, but it has tapered down a bit,” he said.

He was speaking to ET on the sidelines of the launch of burger chain Wendy’s 200th Indian store in Gurugram. Rebel Foods operates Wendy's cloud kitchens and restaurants in India.


Food delivery aggregators Zomato and Swiggy have also witnessed a slowdown, with year-on-year growth during the October-December quarter slipping below 20% for both the players, compared with 25-27% a year earlier.

While demand was slow in the first two months of this calendar year, Grover said Rebel Foods has begun to see an uptick in March driven by occasions such as Ramadan and Holi. The firm also saw a boost from the Champions Trophy cricket tournament that ended Sunday.

ET reported on March 5 citing Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal that the food delivery sector was facing systemic challenges.

Rebel Foods, which raised $210 million in December 2024 from Singapore’s sovereign fund Temasek, reported Rs 1,420 crore in operating revenue for FY24, up 19% from the year before, even as its losses narrowed 42% to Rs 378 crore.

The company is also reported to be preparing for an initial public offering.

Rapid food delivery

According to Grover, 15-minute food delivery will be a key driver of growth for the cloud kitchen startup.

“I think 30 minutes was never a norm; it became a norm. 15 minutes is the next norm. As a technology-first and customer-first company, we are working hard towards it,” he said.

Rebel’s online food ordering app EatSure, which aggregates all its brands such as Faasos, Oven Story Pizza, Behrouz Biryani and Wendy’s, launched a 15-minute food delivery service, Quickies, starting in Mumbai in February.

This comes at a time when food delivery and quick commerce platforms like Zomato, Blinkit, Swiggy and Zepto have all rolled out 10-15-minute delivery services, betting on growth in this segment.

Standalone players such as Accel-backed Swish are also offering 10-minute food delivery in Bengaluru.

Wendy’s expansion

Rebel Foods is looking to scale up the network of Wendy’s – an American fast-food chain – for which the homegrown cloud kitchen startup has the master franchise for India.

From the current 200 stores, Grover said, Rebel Foods will open another 300 Wendy’s outlets over the next three years, making an investment of Rs 100-150 crore.

According to Grover, Wendy's is the fastest-growing brand for the startup, and it plans to double down on it with the goal of tripling its revenue.

“It accounts for a good double-digit percentage of our overall revenue... We aim to open more than 300 stores in the next three years," he said.

“India is the fastest growing market globally for Wendy’s, to get to 200 touch points,” said Chris Conway, managing director, APMEA (Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa) for Wendy's.