Argentina startup raises capital with its “virtual restaurants” and will consolidate operations in Chile

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Gaspard Hambückers is Belgian and Alexandre Boccara is French, but it was in Buenos Aires where they founded Kitchenita, the startup dedicated to creating “virtual restaurants” with products specially made for delivery together with brands and restaurants and focused on the demand of each neighborhood.

The venture was born in 2019 and today closes a capital raising for US$3 million, to further develop the technology, create more products, strengthen its presence in Chile and reach Peru and Mexico.

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Several investment funds participated in this pre-series A round, such as the Argentine Flambeau Partners and Newtopia and the U.S. FJ Labs and Unpopular VC.

Hambückers, COO of Kitchenita, says that the startup was born because they observed how delivery was growing -which intensified with the pandemic-, without restaurants adapting their products. “The pizza arrived cold and the package was oily. The customer was not very satisfied and it was expensive, the retention rate was very low,” he says.

That’s why they decided to create special food brands for delivery, which are dispatched in less than seven minutes and can arrive in 30 minutes and in good condition to the consumer.

They developed an algorithm with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to understand the composition of demand for a given product and price in each neighborhood. “This is how we managed to position the brands on the different platforms (Rappi, Uber Eats, PedidosYa), since there is a vicious circle in which if you don’t appear from the top ones, you don’t sell,” says Hambückers.

In addition, they generated a second franchise model with which they look for traditional restaurants with idle capacity in their kitchens and partner with them to create a “digital restaurant”, which is added as a new sales channel. They help them by digitizing their business for the different delivery marketplaces and also incorporate the products that Kitchenita designed specifically for home delivery. The franchised digital restaurant with the startup’s model is in charge of delivering the products and then Kitchenita takes a percentage of the sale.

BRANDS AND PROJECTS

Among others, they work with NotCo, with whom they have created two brands for delivery. The first is Planta Base, vegan burgers, and this month they launched Jardín, vegan bowls including NotMilk and NotMayo. Other brands include Hot God, Star Wraps, Ciabatta and Barrigón. Barrigón, a Mexican food brand, was also launched this month in the country.

They currently have 23 brands and presence in Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Bogotá and Santiago. In Chile they already have two of their own kitchens and expect to close 2022 with 50 other franchised kitchens.

Hambückers says they want to reach 50 brands: “Unlike the traditional model, which is to push a brand, I create many and, quickly, with data analysis, I see if it needs to be consolidated, adjusted or killed. I have no problem killing brands quickly if they don’t work”.

Last year they closed with sales of US$1.2 million, a figure they plan to multiply fourfold by 2022.

In the future, they are looking to reach Brazil and the USA.

With information from Diario Financiero

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