Philippine Kitchen Startup CloudEats Secures P70.94 Million in Seed Funding

Although the country is facing a potential recession, there is still good news to share in the business sector: Philippine startup CloudEats has raised $1.4 million (P70.94 million) in seed funding from angel investors and real estate and food and beverage companies.

CloudEats is a cloud kitchen startup that only began in June 2019, but it’s already receiving around 3,000 orders a day. It claims to be the largest cloud kitchen operating in the Philippines.

A cloud kitchen is essentially a food platform that offers only food preparation with no dine-in or takeout option. Think of it as a group of online restaurants with a shared food preparation facility that you can only order from via app or call. In the case of CloudEats, food prepared in this cloud kitchen can be delivered using GrabFood, Foodpanda, and Lalafood.

In this time of coronavirus, takeout and delivery platforms have been a lifeline for struggling restaurants and small enterprises, so it’s no surprise that the demand for cloud kitchens like CloudEats is on the rise. It could potentially be a solution to the crisis facing the restaurant industry.

CloudEats currently has five cloud kitchens around the Philippines with about 70 in-house restaurant brands. The company claims its food brands offer prices that are 15 to 20 percent lower than its competitors. 

CloudEats co-founder and CEO Kimberly Yao stated in Tech in Asia that the local startup plans to use its multi-million-peso seed funding to build more than 100 cloud kitchens for its in-house brands in at least four Southeast Asian countries within two years. Aside from expanding operations in Southeast Asia, CloudEats also aims to operate at least 20 cloud kitchens in the Philippines alone.

As the Philippines experiences lockdown like many other countries around the world, CloudEats has recalibrated its focus to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic by giving customers a chance to order and donate meals for frontliners. As of April 15, it has donated over 63,000 meals for more than 27 hospitals and 10 local government units and raised P4 million from over 700 donors.  

CloudEats is owned and operated by BitesToGo, Inc., an SEC-registered entity in the Philippines.