AngelList India Leads Investment In Cloud Kitchen Startup Kitchens Centre

Delhi-NCR headquartered cloud kitchen startup Kitchens Centre has raised $500K in a seed funding round. The investment has been led by AngelList India led the investment round with participation from investors like Utsav Somani (partner, Angelist India), Jake Zeller (partner,  Angelist), Jonathon Swanson (cofounder, Thumbtack), Ankush Gera (founder, Junglee Games), Revant Bhate (cofounder, Mosaic Wellness).

The company will use the fresh funding towards expansion plans across new geographies.

Founded in 2019 by Lakshay Jain, Kitchens Centre offers turnkey solutions to cloud kitchens – right from providing commercial space and kitchen infrastructure to assisting with branding, order management, delivery and maintenance services.

The company claims to have set up centres across north India with brands like BTW, WOW! Momo, Asian Haus, Burgrill, 34 Chowringhee Lane, Wok Me, etc.

Further, the company said it has acquired Posify, a technology-driven management solution for food and beverages brands. The company said that Posify allows brands to manage orders on a single platform, while also helping with inventory management, billing and delivery tracking etc.

Jain claimed that the company helps brands cut down capital and operational expenses and achieve an average of 25% increase in sales and better payback periods.

DataLabs by Inc42  estimates that the annual cost of opening a restaurant in India, on average, is approximately 3.05x times that of a cloud kitchen.

Looking at the potential market opportunity, a lot of players have started entering the nascent domain of cloud kitchens. Big restaurant brands, food aggregators like Zomato and Swiggy and other big names like Ola Foods have incorporated cloud kitchens on their platforms as well. Even big players like budget lodging platform OYO has been trying to enter this market.

As per DataLabs by Inc42, the projected market size of cloud kitchens is expected to reach $1.05 Bn by 2023. The report also says that Swiggy and Zomato make up 63% of the total market share in food delivery as per app installs. The two major food aggregators in India entered the cloud kitchen market in 2017 to take on the likes of Rebel Foods, Box8, Freshmenu, and Eat.fit among others.

The cloud kitchen business model is heavily dependent on food aggregators. The ones operating independently also have a major challenge of managing the kitchen and the delivery part of the business. Hence, Kitchens Centre can be seen as a value-addition for new brands to set up cloud kitchens.