Grubtech, an all in one SaaS platform for cloud kitchens and delivery-centric restaurants – has secured $3.4 million pre–Series A funding. Investors included large regional family offices, a US-based venture capital firm as well as reputable angel investors. Having already deployed its solution across hundreds of brands and processed hundreds of thousands of orders, grubtech will use the funds to further accelerate product development and capitalize on increased demand from MENA, Europe and the Americas.
The F&B sector is rapidly transforming, driven by strong demand for online food delivery that has been catalyzed by the pandemic. This has forced restauranteurs to adapt their business models to focus on delivery, mainly through food aggregators such as Talabat, Deliveroo and Hunger Station. In addition, it has accelerated the growth of cloud kitchens around the world. Grubtech has been purpose built to cater to the digital transformation of the F&B sector by building an end-to-end operating system that tackles the friction points arising from operating a high volume food delivery business, and unlocks the ability to serve multiple delivery-only brands from a single location. Grubtech’s fast growing client base include large cloud kitchens and restaurant groups in the MENA region and abroad. The start-up is releasing a self-serve version for smaller chains shortly as it looks to power the next generation of champions in the food delivery space.
"Grubtech has built a pioneering tech stack which is trailblazing advancements in the growing online food delivery and cloud kitchen space. We are incredibly excited about grubtech’s growth potential globally," said a syndicate of private investors in the MENA region, led by Ghassan Oueida and Gry Loseth.
Grubtech solves for the fragmented rest-tech landscape by integrating with third parties like food aggregators, logistics providers, points-of-sale solutions and ERPs. Its product streamlines operations with the ultimate goal of maximizing kitchen utilization, reducing the order to doorbell journey whilst reducing costs.
"Unlike other players in the market that focus on solving one of many pain points, grubtech has built an all-in-one platform, reducing friction points across the order lifecycle. Given our extensive experience investing in the F&B sector, we are big believers in the need for grubtech’s solution and understand the magnitude of the problems it is solving," said AbdulMohsen Ibrahim AlTouq, CEO of AlTouq Group.
Grubtech’s solution serves different business models including cloud kitchens, multi-brand single location models and delivery-centric restaurants. The solution is also being used by owners of underutilized real estate such as hotels and gas stations that are creating their own cloud kitchens.
"Grubtech has been a key partner of ours in the launch and operation of our first cloud kitchen in the region," said Joe Frem, Vice President of Cloud Kitchens and Concepts at Talabat (Delivery Hero). "Deployed within days, it provides our tenants with the tools necessary to efficiently operate multiple brands out of one location, thereby maximizing kitchen capacity and order throughput."
The platform provides restaurant owners the ability to quickly and efficiently serve multiple brands from one location, creating what is known as micro cloud kitchens, and maximizing revenue from existing supply chains and resources.
"Grubtech has automated otherwise manual and time-consuming processes for us, from order receipt to delivery. This has enabled us to create micro cloud kitchens within our existing real estate footprint to serve multiple virtual brands we’ve created from one location," said Rodolph Njeim, CCO of Eathos.
By centralizing capabilities, providing visibility into all critical events across the order lifecycle, and supplementing it with advanced analytics, grubtech has helped its customers reduce click-to-doorbell time by 20% and save approximately 25% of manpower costs.
"Grubtech’s user-friendly and intuitive interface meant that our staff required minimal training," said Hilmar Venter, the Regional F&B Delivery Manager of the Azadea Group. "The ability to centrally manage our menus and disable unavailable menu items and modifiers directly from the kitchen display system has helped reduce human errors, order cancellations, and eliminate time wasted making updates across various tablets. We’ve also significantly reduced order acceptance time by receiving all orders on one screen. By operating more efficiently, with cost savings, we are able to better serve our customers and increase repeat orders."
"Grubtech has built a unique business focused on solving a global problem for the rapidly transforming F&B sector," said Asif Keshodia, former CFO of Amazon MENA and an angel investor. "The clients they have signed on thus far and the interest garnered from cloud kitchens and restaurants around the world is a testament to the strength of grubtech’s technology."
According to CEO Mohamed Al Fayed, "We are still in the early stages of the digitization of the F&B sector, akin to e-commerce 10 years ago. The operations of high volume, multi-brand and omnichannel sales are complex, and so grubtech has been built with a deep focus on our customers’ pain points today, and anticipated issues and opportunities of the future."
"We are fortunate to be working with some of the largest and more innovative players in the sector who have provided us with a great customer feedback loop," continued Al Fayed, "we are proud to be local and privileged to be global."
