BigSpoon, the multi-brand cloud kitchen startup, today announced the launch of their new delivery-only celebrity brand Mehfil Biryani by Zakir Khan, in
partnership with India’s top artist Zakir Khan. Mehfil Biryani by Zakir Khan will be the largest single-day F&B launch ever witnessed in India, starting
with 28 cities and 66 outlets that are all company-owned and operated. The
company plans to scale the Mehfil brand to 100+ outlets over the next quarter, and to 200 outlets in 2022.
The
company will bring diverse biryani flavours and regional favouritesinMatkas and premium container packaging options, along with regional starters andsides, local desserts, and beverages.
It will continue to add regional favourites, limited-period products, and experience-led items in the dynamic menu and will be available in all major Indian cities.
Bigspoon signed a $2M lease and inventory financing
partnership with Grip, India’s leading alternative investment platform, a part of which contributed to the launch and expansion investments of Mehfil. In
addition to inventory, the kitchen and operational CapEx towards assetsand tech hardware were funded by Grip. The company plans to deploy furthergrowth capital to expand to 200+ outlets, and deepen their house of brands strategy in existing and new kitchens.
Bigspoon is a house of brands, with 8 owned and 6
partner brands in its portfolio. The company is currently present in 14 states and 30+ cities, with the footprint being doubled by the next
quarter.
Cloud Kitchens in India have come of age in the last
few years, growing at a CAGR of 30%+. The food-delivery market wouldsoon be of
a $10B+ annual size, and the growth is predominantly contributed by Tie2and
Tier-3 cities. With CoVid, the adaption has been accelerated rapidly, and the
convenience of ordering food at a place of choice has taken precedence,matched equally by the increase in the number of options.
Quotes by Spokespeople:
On
the occasion of the launch,
Kapil Mathrani, Co-Founder & CEO, Bigspoon said, “Biryani
has been the single largest ordered item in the country for a decade, yet itis
a largely fragmented market with hardly 20% of it beingorganized.Thereare
only a couple of national players that have a large footprint with Biryani as
their USP. Mehfil will stand on three key pillars – standardized &
high-quality offerings, value-for-money pricing and tailor-made, premium packaging. With
deep research and experience, supply chain and culinary expertise, and bringing experts like Bizongo
Desworks for the structural design of the packaging, Bigspoon has been able toachieve the three critical aspects at scale.”
Artist
Zakir Khan
said, “It
is no secret that I have a soft spot for biryani. To tell the truth, touring a
city is incomplete until I dig in and relish its biryani infused with local spices and flavours— it is my way to connect with my fans and the city I am
performing in. Through this new venture with Bigspoon, I seek to give my fans a taste of one of my favourite dishes in the comfort of their homes. We have built this brand with a lot of love and hope you like it.”
Vivek
Gulati, Co-Founder & COO, Grip,
said, “Grip
has gone beyond traditional asset investments, to now strategically help
consumer brands build their growth trajectory by widening the scope ofassets and fundable inventory including packaging. Mehfil Biryani by Zakir Khan is Bigspoon’s category-defining move, which with the backing of Grip accelerates the speed of execution and capturing key geographies across Tier 1, 2 and 3
landscape of India.”
Preranaa
Khatri, Executive Vice President, OML, “We
are incredibly excited to have facilitated the partnership between Zakir and BigSpoon to launch Mehfil Biryani. This collaboration makes perfect sensegiven Zakir’s great love for biryani. At OML, creator collaborations with brandsare a big part of our strategy going forward and we are glad to have found a thoughtful and dynamic partner in BigSpoon to launch the first one.”
About Mehfil:
Mehfil Biryani By Zakir Khan is India’s
first-of-its-kind celebrity Biryani brand at scale, which is revolutionizingthe
space by standardizing Biryani varieties and sides, backed by culinary research, and its cloud kitchen infrastructure.
About BigSpoon:
Bigspoon is a full-stack cloud kitchen company, with a
house of brands strategy, based out of Ahmedabad. They have a presence in 30+ cities, with brands like Makhni Brothers, Meals101, Thali Central, et al. Bigspoon has an omnichannel approach and has a D2C platform for virtual-food court app on Android and iOS, in addition to being available on Zomato and Swiggy.
