• Jordan-based cloud kitchen Kitchefy, has raised a $350,000 pre-Seed round, led by the Oasis 500 fund, the Beyond Capital Fund, MyStartUp Incubator “Injaz” and a group of individual investors.
• Founded in 2021 by Abdullah Absi, Ahmad Akel and Marwan Abu Sakha, Kitchefy transforms commercial kitchens into cloud kitchens to help restaurants reach new customers, explore new markets and locations and enable them to make the most out of their existing resources.
• The newly acquired investment will be utilised to expand locally, paving the way for regional expansion, starting with the Saudi market, and opening four new virtual restaurant brands.

Press release:

Jordanian startup, Kitchefy, recently announced a pre-seed investment worth $350,000. The company confirmed that the recent support and investment will help develop and expand its operations within the framework of a general goal of making a real difference in the food and beverage industry, as the company seeks to utilise the investment to expand locally in new Jordanian governorates, paving the way for regional expansion, starting with the Saudi market, and opening four new food brands with new concepts.

To consolidate its presence in its significant market countries by working with existing commercial kitchens as implementation partners “Fulfillment Partners”, the startup aims to increase revenue, increase efficiency and improve utilization rates to maximise the utilisation of resources with no additional costs added.

Kitchefy offers an innovative solution that transforms commercial kitchens into cloud kitchens. By doing so, the company creates high-demand food brands and injects them into the underutilised commercial kitchens of over-capacity in hotels, cafes, restaurants and other hospitality venues, to help restaurants reach new customers, explore new markets and locations and enable them to make the most out of their existing resources.

The co-founders of Kitchefy spotted an opportunity to revolutionise the food delivery industry, as the demand for services grew at a time when restaurants and cafes were closing down. Current statistics suggest that 38% of food orders are done through delivery. This figure is expected to increase to over 60% by 2026. Kitchefy is ideally placed to help businesses capitalise on this trend.

Co-Founder and CEO, Marwan Abu Sakha, said, “We have seen how much commercial kitchens have suffered during the Corona pandemic, and we thought it was due to the pandemic alone, but what we realised was that kitchens have always been suffering from underutilised capacity even before the outbreak of the pandemic. A good burger restaurant gets busy after 2 pm, as it is less demanded by customers in the morning, and this also applies to different cuisines. This is the point where we want to add value to the market and help existing and new kitchen operators thrive in a rapidly growing industry”.

Co-Founder and CFO, Abdullah Al-Absi added: “We are creating a more profitable business model for restaurants through the use of the shared economy module, and are enabling restaurants to handle more sales volume at the same fixed cost. Kitchefy has been able to work on ratios and units of the economy that guarantee the satisfaction of their partners, as each order of one of the virtual brands of Kitchefy that have been included in the restaurant guarantees a profit margin ranging from 20% to 30% for the owner of the restaurant.”

The company, which was established in the middle of last year, was chosen among five other startup companies for Landmark 2.0, the first innovation and Impact hub designed and housed by a corporate entity, and was able to secure support and investment from a group of investment companies, including the "Oasis 500" Fund, a leading pre-seed and seed investment company, the Beyond Capital Fund an LC funded by USAID, MyStartUp Incubator” Injaz”, and a group of individual investors, including Mary Nazzal Batayneh the founder of Landmark hotel and 17Venture, Zuhair Shammout the owner of Pine Catering, and Mufleh Akel, the previous President of the Social Security Authority.