MUY Tech lands US$4 million from Seaya Ventures •

Contxto – Colombian restaurant platform, MUY Tech, landed US$4 million from Seaya Ventures to consolidate operations in its home country and expand to five Latin American nations.

In Summary

MUY Tech is a startup from Bogota trying to make the food industry faster and more affordable via technology.

Offering “home-cooked” meals in five locations across Colombia, it plans to use the fresh funding to open more branches. At the same time, MUY Tech anticipates expanding to five countries, including Mexico.

In-Depth

According to the company CEO, José Calderón, MUY Tech wants to become a key player in Latin America’s food service industry within the next decade.

For this, they hope to strengthen their tech development to grow and scale operations in a reassured and efficient way. Both Calderón and his partner, Miguel McAllister, want to help restaurants optimize their internal processes and users’ experiences via technology.

Oftentimes, fast food in Latin America isn’t healthy at all. Mexican tacos or Chilean sopaipillas may be delicious but they aren’t the most nutritious. Also, what’s better than a home-cooked meal? They want to enable people to purchase quality, healthy and affordable food in a convenient yet modern way.

Conclusion

While I do agree there’s a market opportunity for on-demand home-cooked meals, I don’t necessarily see the tech factor being leveraged here.

MUY Tech is currently a restaurant chain offering better quality, fresher food, which is certainly nice and could become a big business but I don’t see how they plan to scale with that specific model. Unless it becomes a peer-to-peer marketplace, it will be a highly capital-intensive business.

This isn’t the first time Seaya has invested in Latin American startups, either. It’s also not the first time the firm has invested in the food industry. Having financed Coru, Cabify, Glovo, and even exited SinDelantal, these guys and gals certainly know what they’re doing. Maybe I’ve missed something they’ve spotted.

I hope to see further development of this company since I really like its vision and the market it’s trying to tackle.