Last year when we met Rui Bento and Nuno Rodrigues – two former executives of Uber in Southern Europe who launched the ridesharing and food delivery company in Portugal – they told us about their mission to enable everyone in the city to enjoy dishes from their favourite restaurants, at home. While the concept of food delivery is well-known thanks to the likes of Uber Eats, Deliveroo etc, Rui and Nuno were truly thinking ‘delivery-first’, something traditional restaurants aren’t set up for.
Seeing the potential of these two highly impressive operators and the poor infrastructure many restaurants have in place, which prevents them from delivering to consumers, it was an easy decision for us to lead this €1M pre-seed round alongside Lisbon-based Mustard Seed MAZE which has also attracted a number of industry-specific angels including João Cepeda, Founder and President at Time Out Market Lisbon
“Food delivery and takeaway are a growing part of our routines and will become even more prevalent in the context of the current pandemic. It’s easy, convenient, and there are more and more restaurants available. However, not everything is perfect. Many of our favourite restaurants still don’t make it to our dining tables. And most restaurants haven’t conceived their food to travel across town inside a backpack, on a motorbike”, shares Rui.
Every element of the Kitch experience is designed from scratch — from the ingredients to the packaging – and the team is committed to leaving no trail behind its deliveries, be it by reducing non-reusable plastic packaging, implementing technology-based solutions to reduce food waste, or improving the energy efficiency of food production and delivery.
On the investment, our Partner, Sia Houchangnia, comments:
“The way people eat is changing, fast, and Kitch provides the infrastructure that will allow restaurants to adapt and thrive in this new environment while at the same time building a brand that will be recognized for best-in-class operations. There is a massive opportunity here to be one of the few businesses that define the future of food which is an extremely complex market to navigate. Therefore, it is essential to have an execution driven team that knows the space inside out. With Rui and Nuno, we know we have found one. They are exceptional, execution-driven founders, and what they’ve achieved in only a few months reinforce our belief that they can expand fast and be one of the few winners in this highly competitive market.”
The team will use the capital raised from this round to start developing and scaling its operations from Lisbon, connecting the city to its favourite restaurants through meals made for delivery, offering restaurants new avenues to develop their businesses in a delicate economic environment, and taking a first step to making food delivery more sustainable.