Contxto – RobinFood, parent company of Colombian foodtech brand MUY, has landed US$18 million of debt financing from Miami-based MGM Innova Group. This brings RobinFood’s total funding up to US$36 million thus far.
The name of the game for RobinFood is to disrupt how food is delivered across Latin America. The company’s model is centered around cloud kitchens, each of which produce food for a handful of different brands.
They place these kitchens in central locations and then wait for the orders to start rolling in. Who’d have thought that economies of scale could be so delicious!
Of course, some of their brands, like MUY, still depend on a physical footprint to bring in most of their business. But it’s what they’ve got cooking in the cloud-based kitchens that’s making investors like MGM salivate.
No-touch delivery is ripe for Covid
In-person dining was one of the sectors hardest hit by the Covid crisis. In many countries across the region and the globe, dining rooms were shuttered. Yet the savviest of entrepreneurs saw this challenge as an exciting opportunity for innovation in the foodtech space.
Digital-first restaurants could capitalize on hungry consumers’ increased adoption of delivery platforms. These online solutions also bring efficiency gains to restaurants. For instance, MUY uses AI to predict food consumption patterns and cut down on waste.
These opportunities coming out of the Covid context are certainly intriguing. But RobinFood’s CEO and Founder, José Calderon, understands that the pandemic won’t last forever, so the company has also built tech into the physical locations.
In an improvement of consumer experience, hungry diners can now order in advance via their phone en route to the location or save the hassle from standing in line by using self-serve kiosks.
RobinFood brings data to restaurants
Even more exciting for restaurant chains like RobinFood is the prospect of harvesting data about consumption habits. The potential uses of this data are limitless, but let’s touch on a few.
In the immediate future, understanding what consumers want and when they want it will help restaurants avoid ups and downs in demand.
This is great for consumers because it means your favorite burger joint will always have ample amounts of fries (phew!). But it’s also a win for restaurants, who will be sure to buy just the right amount of stock.
It gets even more exciting when we think about what this data can tell us long term.
Restaurants will be able to more easily track customer loyalty, giving its strongest supporters rewards for showing up on a regular basis. It could then leverage this info in their marketing activities, expanding their demo based on the behavior of a restaurant’s diehard fans.
This data could also shape future menu design. This digital intel could automatically highlight consumers’ interest in a particular product or preparation, giving the restaurants a key insight into how to ensure each and every patron leaves with a smile on their face.
Digital everything: Just the start of in-person disruption
RobinFood’s recent injection of funding points to a much larger trend towards innovative startups disrupting in person retail experiences. Services like Rappi and UberEats would have been unthinkable less than a decade ago.
The increased accessibility of smartphones and the rise of the gig economy have led to a massive shift towards improving the consumer experience. That’s led to a new generation of consumers with high expectations and large appetites for services that make their lives even a little bit easier.
RobinFood hits the mark with these consumers, providing a quality service at a reasonable price–satiating our hunger for food and tech innovation all at once. And to that, we say bon appétit!
-RK
