CEO and Founder Aston Chua Yee Shen (left) with Hometaste core team
Malaysia-based home-cooked meals delivery platform Hometaste today announced that it has raised US$576,000 (MYR2.4 million) through equity crowdfunding platform pitchIN. Involving 89 investors, the highest individual investment in the round was valued at US$192,000 (MYR802,386).
“The funds raised will be used to scale Hometaste as a data-driven multi-brand cloud kitchen operated via tech-enabled channels with a target to open 70 cloud kitchens by 2023 in Malaysia and eventually expanding beyond the Malaysian shores to other Southeast Asia countries,” said Hometaste CEO and Founder Aston Chua Yee Shen.
Founded in 2017, Hometaste enables customers to order food from home chefs in their neighbourhood –currently concentrated in Klang Valley. It provides support for home chefs by giving them a platform to expand their F&B business.
It was part of MaGIC’s Global Accelerator Program (GAP) Cohort 5.
The company said that it has a 15,000 customer base to date, delivered over 18,000 home recipes’ orders on a monthly basis, and served over 500,000 pax of food. It also claimed to experience a 15 times growth on a yearly increment in revenue since it was founded.
In its expansion plan, Hometaste also plans to utilise data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence to optimise brands, cuisines, and menus for each target market. With over 70 per cent of programmes being automated currently, it also plans to utilise big data analysis to improve other aspects such as the estimation of ingredients to reduce food waste and increase revenue.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged customers to change their behaviours, and eventually, opened up opportunities for businesses such as food delivery and its related services –including cloud kitchens. This also applies in markets such as Malaysia, where the F&B industry experienced a hit.
In our special feature, e27 uncovered that many traditional F&B players in Malaysia have turned to cloud kitchens to save operational costs. Some even went as far as opening their own cloud kitchens.
But for these F&B businesses, joining a cloud kitchen also push them to change the way they operate, requiring them to adapt.
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Image Credit: Hometaste
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