Online restaurant EatFirst secures $8m investment
The start-up offers home delivery of chef-made meals in London and Berlin and plans to ‘radically evolve the UK’s dining-in experience’.
Founded by Rahul Parekh, Humberto Ayres Pereira and Torben Schulz in 2014, EatFirst has received backing from German-based start-up studio Rocket Internet and plans expand across Europe and worldwide.
The company credits its success to the UK’s booming restaurant sector, and claims to have delivered over 100,000 meals and achieved a 30 per cent rise in sales this year.
“The future of the restaurant category is online, and we are at the forefront of this shift,” said Parekh.
Research shows consumers are increasingly spending more on eating out, but EatFirst says its model is ‘blurring the lines’ within the sector by offering healthy, restaurant quality meals to diners who are too busy to go out.
“We want to grow the UK restaurant sector and offer an additional option...consumer lifestyles are continually evolving, and we noticed an opportunity to explore further," said Parekh.
“We’ve seen huge demand over the last 9 months and this investment will enable us to reach new heights.”
Online restaurants have become something of a buzzword this year, with Michelin-starred delivery service Supper launching in London in September.
Deliveroo is set to expand across the UK after securing a $70m investment, while Pizza Express has launched its first delivery service in the capital.
In July accountancy firm BDO predicted a boom in tech led restaurants over the next two years.
Mark Edwards, consumer markets partner at BDO, said: “While this could become a congested market very quickly, there are likely to be a range of new entrants over the next 12-18 months and there will be potential for high returns in the short term.”
