LONDON, Jan. 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- London Impact Ventures is excited to announce its participation as lead investor in the $2M seed funding round of Kitchen Ventures. A highly disruptive cloud kitchen and virtual dining start-up based out of London, Kitchen Ventures leverages its network of cloud kitchens in central London to develop and launch chef-centric and influencer-based brands, the first of its kind in the UK. The funds will be used to expand its network of kitchens across the city and select international markets, in addition to adding to its growing portfolio of owned and operated virtual brands.
To help satisfy an increasing demand for restaurant quality takeaway, Kitchen Ventures has partnered with renowned chefs to offer customers a unique, high-quality restaurant experience in the comfort of their home. The virtual food hall has signed up Gizzi Erskine and Professor Green's Giz 'N' Greens Pizza Pies, Nud Dudhia and Chris Whitney's Tacos El Ray and Lucy Pearce's Farmbird and Local Greens. Current kitchens are located in Kensington Olympia in West London and Bethnal Green in East London.
In addition to Deliveroo and Uber Eats, customers can order their favourite meals on the Kitchen Ventures website, a platform that is attractive to families and groups looking to mix different concepts and cuisines.
The anticipated collaboration between chef Gizzi Erskine and rapper Professor Green, Giz 'N' Green Pizza Pies, sees a menu paying homage to American-style, deep dish pizza. At the start of lockdown, the duo teamed up to showcase homemade takeaway classics each week on Instagram, with their Giz & Green Monday Night Fakeaway. Now offering their own takeaway, the menu includes high-quality, ingredient-led, slow risen rye sourdough stuffed crust pizza pies.
Next up is Mexican fare from Tacos El Rey with a menu designed by Breddos Tacos founders Nud Dudhia and Chris Whitney, among the kings of the London taco scene. The Tacos El Rey menu features Mexican street food favourites, from tacos and burritos to feasting-style specials. Customers can build their own taco box with a selection of meats, vegetarian or vegan fillings, corn tortillas, corn chips and guacamole, rice and beans, and a choice of salsas.
Nud Dudhia, Co-Founder of Breddos Tacos, said: "Building a delivery-only Mexican restaurant from the ground up has enabled us to create a menu that hones in on quality, speed, flavour and most of all customer experience. With Tacos El Rey we're offering what we believe is THE best Mexican food you can get delivered to your home in London."
The final launch offering comes from Lucy Pearce (ex-Petersham Nurseries and Rawduck). Pearce's two concepts, Local Greens and Farmbird reflect her passion for produce, people and the planet - her ethos of cooking with fresh and seasonal flavours highlighted in each carefully constructed dish. Local Greens' farm-to-bowl salad bar sources ingredients from a transparent and sustainable supply chain featuring the UK's best growers and making each ingredient traceable. Farmbird's menu positions corn fed, high welfare roast chicken at the centre. All birds are brined for a duration, then marinated and roasted to ensure they are juicy and succulent.
Jonny Boud, founder of Kitchen Ventures, said: "It feels like we now live in a world where a delivery-only, virtual restaurant brand can exist with as much, if not more relevance than a traditional restaurant. The delivery market has been growing steadily for years but when the world went into lockdown the trend accelerated considerably. With consumer trends shifting to becoming more adventurous with home dining, there is a huge opportunity for fresh concepts. We plan to grow our own concepts, license existing brands and build a network of franchise partners with under-utilized kitchen space to help scale the offering. It's an exciting growth space."
"We are very excited to be part of Kitchen Venture's journey to disrupt the traditional dark kitchen model that has shown tremendous growth over the past few years, especially during the latest pandemic. Our experience in investing in both consumer food products like Impossible Foods and last mile delivery and logistics technology companies like Postmates and Uber will surely assist Kitchen Ventures in expanding their footprint and build on the current momentum. The recent and ongoing pandemic has had devastating effects on the restaurant industry, and this has obviously resulted in the rise of the direct to consumer delivery model. Kitchen Ventures' own proprietary platform aims to bring high quality chef and influencer focused concepts to every home and help existing restaurants put their under-utilized kitchens to good use."
- Aboud Khaddam, Managing Partner at London Impact Ventures
For more information:
Email | info@londonimpact.com
Phone | +44 (0)7425 390283
Website | londonimpact.com
LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/london-impact-ventures
Instagram | @londonimpact
Twitter | @londonimpactvc
