Kamereo team
Vietnamese startup Kamereo, which offers an online platform for F&B companies to optimise their sourcing and purchasing processes, has received US$4.6 million in a Series A round of funding, co-led by conglomerate CPF Group, Quest Ventures, and Genesia Ventures.
The Ho Chi Minh City-headquartered startup will use the funds for expanding its team and operations into Hanoi next year, as well as to build a new warehouse management system to optimise daily operations.
A portion of the money will also go into upgrading the user experience and service quality of its website and mobile app (available on App Store and Google Play) and expanding tech coverage to allow the in-house engineering team to make fast, data-driven decisions.
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In the long term, Kamereo aims to become a one-stop procurement platform for F&B businesses.
The platform was launched in 2018 by long-term Japanese expatriate Taku Tanaka with a vision to redefine the food business by letting chefs and restaurateurs focus on serving the best culinary experiences to customers while leaving the nitty-gritty of supplier negotiations, order processing and management to the Kemereo team.
Before launching the company, Tanaka held the role of COO at renowned restaurant chain Pizza 4Ps. It was here where he began to find problems to overcome with the food supply chain, particularly with efficiency. It was this experience that led to his founding of Kamereo.
Kamereo is a tech-enabled supplier for restaurants, hotels, cafes, retail shops and offices. It is a one-stop platform where farmers, producers, importers and buyers connect to trade a range of fruit and vegetable products at the best prices. It also has its own warehouse, delivery team and customer support team. Some of its most notable clients are Pizza 4Ps, El Gaucho, Sol Kitchen & Bar, and L’usine.
The startup claims it has grown by 15 per cent every month in the last 12 months despite mobility restrictions and the temporary closure of some businesses. It attributes this success to the surging local F&B industry, which has shown a steady compound annual growth rate of over 10 per cent, as well as segment players’ growing discernment on sustainably and ethically sourced goods, and the country’s overall positive management of the coronavirus pandemic.
Currently, the foodtech startup has about a hundred employees serving more than 400 active customers who buy regularly from the platform.
Montri Suwanposri, CEO of CP Vietnam Corporation, said: “We are pleased to join forces with Kamereo, combining our state-of-the-art production and highest food standards with their unparalleled B2B F&B expertise. Together, we are helping and elevating F&B entrepreneurs with hygienic, tasty, and innovative food as they strive to do better for their customers.”
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Goh Yiping, Partner of Quest Ventures, added: “Kamereo sits in one of the largest food production hubs of Southeast Asia, and there is much room to grow in solving many of the inefficiencies of the supply chain today, improving farmers’ livelihood outcomes and procuring the best products for businesses and homes.”
As per a new report, Vietnam is expected to be the ‘rising star’ in Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem. The country will emerge as the third-largest startup ecosystem in the region in 2022, with stronger signs of VC funds putting more efforts into early-stage investments in the country, according to the report released by Golden Gate Ventures.
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Image Credit: Kamereo
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