Fresh food start-up iD Foods to launch in US, UK

Dosa-idli batter manufacturer, iD Fresh Food, is spreading its wings to the US and UK. To begin with, it would be launching its array of parathas in these markets and would eventually set up manufacturing facilities in these countries, post which it would sell dosa-idli and vada batter and other fresh products. The fresh food start-up has also recently launched its operations in Saudi Arabia, while its operations in Dubai and Oman are already a couple of years old. International business contributes 30% to its revenue and P.C Musthafa, co-founder and CEO, expects the international business to contribute as much as 50% in the next two years.

Till date a metro-focused company, iD, has also started entering into tier 2-3 cities such as Indore, Patna, Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram and Calicut. The company has introduced newer categories of fresh food such as grated coconut, wholewheat paratha, milk and wholewheat bread. It has also caught up with the growing trend of consuming millet-based food. "It's just a matter of time when millets/superfoods are going to become mainstream food. We have ragi, oat and multigrain batter and all of them have enough takers," says Musthafa.

iD Foods is expecting to close FY22 at an annualised run-rate of ₹550 crore. "In two years time we should be a ₹1,000 crore company, 50% of which will come from international markets." iD Fresh products are available in 30,000 stores and Musthafa claims that traditional retail is his backbone. "If you don't have a traditional FMCG distribution model, it will be difficult to scale up a food brand."

In January this year, the fresh food company raised ₹507 crore in Series D round of funding led by NewQuest Capital Partner along with its existing investor, Premji Invest. The company had secured $5.2 million in Series A funding from Helion Ventures in 2014 and $25 million from Premji Invest in 2017.