Cloud kitchens are the massive factor in meals supply, with ex-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s new enterprise one contender in that house, with Asia, and notably Southeast Asia, a serious focus. Despite the newcomers, a extra established startup from Singapore has raised a big bowl of money to go after regional growth.
Founded in 2014, Grain focuses on clear meals whereas it takes a unique method to Kalanick’s CloudKitchens or meals supply companies like Deliveroo, FoodPanda or GrabFood.
It adopted a cloud kitchen mannequin — using undesirable actual property as kitchens, with supply companies for output — however used it for its personal operations. So whereas CloudKitchens and others hire their house to F&B firms as a less expensive technique to make meals for his or her on-demand supply prospects, Grain works with its personal cooks, menu and supply staff. A so-called ‘full stack’ mannequin in the event you can stand the cliched tech phrase.
Finally, Grain can also be worthwhile. The new spherical has it taking pictures for development — extra on that under — however the startup was worthwhile final yr, CEO and co-founder Yi Sung Yong advised TechCrunch.
Now it’s reaping the rewards of a mannequin that retains it in command of its product, in contrast to others which are sophisticated by a sequence that features the restaurant and a supply particular person.
We beforehand wrote about Grain when it raised a $1.7 million Series A again in 2016 and immediately it introduced a $10 million Series B which is led by Thailand’s Singha Ventures, the VC arm of the beer model. A bevy of different buyers took half, together with Genesis Alternative Ventures, Sass Corp, K2 Global — run by serial investor Ozi Amanat who has backed Impossible Foods, Spotify and Uber amongst others — FoodXervices and Majuven. Existing buyers Openspace Ventures, Raging Bull — from Thai Express founder Ivan Lee — and Cento Ventures participated.
The spherical consists of enterprise debt, in addition to fairness, and it’s value noting that the household workplace of the house owners of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf — Sassoon Investment Corporation — was concerned.
Grain covers particular person meals in addition to buffets in Singapore
Three years is a protracted hole between the 2 offers — Openspace and Cento have even rebranded throughout the intervening interval — and the experience has been an eventful one. During these years, Sung stated the enterprise had come near operating out of capital earlier than it doubled down on the basics earlier than the precarious runway capital ran out.
In reality, he stated, the corporate — which now has over 100 employees — was absolutely ready to self-sustain.
“We didn’t think of raising a Series B,” he defined in an interview. “Instead, we focused on the business and getting profitable… we thought that we can’t depend entirely on investors.”
And, women and gentleman, the irony of that’s that VCs very very like a enterprise that may self-sustain — it reveals a mannequin is confirmed — and investing in a startup that doesn’t want capital might be enticing.
Ultimately, although, profitability is seen as horny immediately — notably within the meal house the place numerous U.S. startups has shuttered together with Munchery and Sprig — however the focus meant that Grain needed to shelve its growth plans. It then went by way of soul-searching occasions in 2017 when a spoilt curry noticed 20 prospects get meals poisoning.
Sung declined to remark straight on that incident, however he stated that firm immediately has developed the “infrastructure” to scale its enterprise throughout the board, and that very a lot consists of high quality management.
Grain co-founder and CEO Yi Sung Yong [Image via LinkedIn]
Grain at the moment delivers “thousands” of meals per day in Singapore, its sole market, with eight-figures in gross sales per yr, he stated. Last yr, development was 200 p.c, Sung continued, and now’s the time to look abroad. With Singha, the Grain CEO stated the corporate has “everything we need to launch in Bangkok.”
Thailand — which Malaysia-based rival Dahamakan picked for its first growth — is…
