Kishwar Hashemee – Kludio co-founder
Dhaka may be one of the lesser-spoken markets in South Asia but Kishwar Hasheeme believes that there is no better place to launch Bangladesh’s first full-stack cloud kitchen.
While the concept has already existed in Asia and been tested by brands such as Dahmakan and Rebel Foods, considering Dhaka’s status as a “developing market”, cloud kitchen is still in its early days and has massive growth potential.
“Food delivery is in its early stages in many Asian countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia, and has immense potential to grow over the next five to ten years. Food development and technology value chain that is designed for amazing doorstep experience is often overlooked, as most F&B entrepreneurs are focussed on retail and dine-in,” said the co-founder of Kludio in an interview to e27.
“We wanted to change this imbalance in experience and quality by creating Kludio, so that the underserved middle-income customers have a digital food court to rely on. One app, all your meals, for everyone. Dhaka is the perfect first market for our model because of its dense population, large middle-income demography, who are young and mobile-first. One fun fact is that Dhaka was also Uber’s fastest-growing market in Asia outside of Chinese cities,” Hasheeme added.
Also Read: Go-Jek’s VC arm invests US$5M in India’s cloud kitchen startup Rebel Foods
How it works
Kludio app
Cloud kitchens operate like a WeWork for kitchens where different restaurant brands rent their own kitchen stations, instead of paying for rent at a more expensive locale down the street.
What makes Kludio different from other cloud kitchen models is that it takes control of the entire production, from cooking and lead generation to delivery — ultimately taking ownership of the whole customer relationship. It is like an online food court owned by Kludio.
“This model can be quite powerful from a differentiation point of view as well as in terms of the unit economics, which is evident from my personal experience at Kludio. However, there are many moving parts and require a diverse set of skills from food development, optimised production, fast logistics, technology development and mobile commerce,” he shared.
“We have built it all. The value chain is quite robust, and if done successfully, there is a layer of defensibility from aggregators, which other models of food preparation (restaurant and kitchens) do not benefit. This is one of the key differentiation for Kludio,”.
Among the food options available on the Kludio’s platform is Dough On The Go (a pizza outlet), Fry Box, and Fish & Chips. The multiple food brands on the app are all created, owned and operated by Kludio.
To enjoy Kludio’s digital food court experience, users can simply download the app from the iOS or Android store and order anything they like. The delivery hours start at 12 noon until midnight.
“Since its inception, we started to see that our community of customers like the Kludio experience. This attracted more customers, investors and teammates. The model that we built is that of a digital court where you can mix and match brands in one single order much like a physical food court. While at it, we realised we were developing technology that can enable thousands of F&B businesses in terms of efficiency and digitisation,” he said.
Kludio pre- and post-pandemic
Inside the Kludio kitchen
On being asked how the landscape has changed for the startup, pre-and post-pandemic, Hasheeme replied that the challenges keep changing every quarter, every month and sometimes every day.
While that is part of the day-to-day operations, during the pandemic, the entire Kludio team managed to show resilience by participating in the change management process smoothly, he said. The team has developed a special bonding after navigating through the crisis together.
According to him, COVID-19 has turned out to be a blessing for the venture — it launched a consumer-facing app in August this year, which he claims to have crossed more than 20,000 downloads in just two months. The global trends of digitalisation have also boosted the firm.
Bangladesh has only recently been experiencing upward economic growth, thanks to its surging foreign trade which has led to more wealth and employment opportunities.
Although it is still lagging behind Southeast Asia and India in several parameters, Bangladesh has long been an attractive market when it comes to startup investments — evident from the investments made by the likes of Gojek, 500 Startups and Ant Financial into local startups in the recent past.
Kludio has also managed to draw investors and raised a round of funding from several notable investors. “We have raised US$500,000 till date from Grab’s former Chief Economist, Go Jek’s VP of Food Marketplace, Uber’s International Head of Innovation, BOD Tech Ventures (Frontier market tech investor) and Seedstars, to name a few,” he shared.
The startup most recently pitched at Seedstars International Demo Day, a programme to provide startups with financial funding and global mentors.
Also Read: Yummy Corp bags US$12M Series B to grow its cloud kitchen brand in Indonesia
Although it is young, having started just last year, the firm has revealed plans to expand to other countries in Southeast Asia.
“Kludio’s offering works best in young, mobile-first cities so Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines are suitable for our international expansion plans,” Hasheeme said.
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Image Credit: Kludio
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