Cloud kitchen startup Kitchens Centre gets seed funding from AngelList India

New Delhi-based cloud kitchen startup Kitchens Centre has raised $500,000 in a seed funding round from AngelList India.

The round also saw participation from investors including AngelList partners Utsav Somani and Jake Zeller; Jonathon Swanson, co-founder of Thumbtack; Ankush Gera, founder of Junglee Games; and Revant Bhate, co-founder of Mosaic Wellness, the company said in a statement.

Additionally, Kitchens Centre has acquired Posify, a technology-driven management solution for food and beverage services brands, to help with operations, it said.

The fresh capital will be used to drive expansion into new geographies and enable hyperlocal delivery, it said in a statement.

Founded in 2019 by Lakshay Jain, the company offers turnkey solutions to cloud kitchens – it provides everything from commercial space and kitchen infrastructure to assistance with branding, order management, delivery and maintenance services.

It has centres across northern India, with customers such as BTW, WOW! Momo, Asian Haus, Burgrill, 34 Chowringhee Lane, Wok Me, POMP and Beijing Street, the company said. 

The company allows brands to manage orders on a single platform and helps with inventory management, billing and delivery tracking.

“Apart from significantly cutting down on the Cap-Ex (capital expenditure) and Opex-Ex (operational expenditure) of the brands, the network effort of things like order gapping, customer relationship management (CRM) support and customer data helps them achieve an average 25% increase in sales and better payback periods after partnering with us,” Jain said.

Although a highly-active segment, the cloud kitchen business seems to have taken a hit during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The segment’s latest fundraise was in December, when Box8, an on-demand food delivery service platform, raised $1.6 million in a debt round from venture capital firm Trifecta Capital. 

In August, Rebel Foods, which owns and operates cloud kitchen brand Faasos, biryani brand Behrouz and pizza outlet Ovenstory Pizza, was in talks to raise between $65.9 million and $76.1 million from Coatue Management, a technology-focussed hedge fund headquartered in California, and other investors.