Kraver’s Canteen, a Philippine cloud kitchen startup, has secured US$1.5 million in a seed round led by Foxmont Capital.
Angel investors participating in the round include Lance Gokongwei (Chairman of JG Summit, Robinsons, Cebu Pacific), Brian Cu (co-founder of Grab PH, gojek, Zalora), and Paulo Campos III (co-founder of Zalora).
The fresh funds will go towards expanding Kraver’s operations by building 100 kitchens across the Philippines and investing heavily in regional metropolis hubs like Cebu, Iloilo, and Davao.
It will also develop smart kitchen technology to support increased kitchen operations and upgrade its delivery infrastructure.
Launched in 2020 by Eric Dee, Victor Lim and Victor Mapua, Kraver’s cloud kitchen supports brands including Tiger Sugar, Yogost and Tonkatsu Maisen (Bench Group). The company shared it is looking to partner with Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Dairy Queen in the coming months.
“As more customers begin to eat out more and office life resumes, we’ll likely see a shift in customer behaviour. It’s important to remember that cloud kitchens are not designed to replace the brick-and-mortar experience, they are designed more as an expansion tool for brands to take advantage of the growing pie created by delivery aggregators,” said Dee.
“Ordering food online is a consumer behaviour that is here to stay, and as long as customers are ordering, the cloud kitchen ecosystem will continue to grow. Whether consumers notice this or not, more of the food they order to their home or office will be coming from cloud kitchens over time,” he added.
“The Philippines is at the precipice of a major digital evolution. A big part of that will be a change in the way that Filipinos consume food. Cloud kitchens will soon be part of the natural fabric of the F&B industry, and we believe Kraver’s is the right startup to lead the way in the Philippines,” said Franco Varona, Managing Partner at Foxmont Capital Partners.
In November last year, MadEats, a similar cloud kitchen startup headquartered in Manila, received an undisclosed sum in pre-seed investment, led by Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen, with participation from Paymongo co-founder Luis Sia.
The on-demand food delivery of Southeast Asia is expected to grow 4x by 2025, from US$4 billion to US$8 billion, according to research from Dataspring.
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Image Credit: Kraver’s Canteen
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