PHOTO
Egyptian cloud kitchen start-up The Food Lab has announced a pre-seed funding round of $4.5 million from a series of sources including Saudi and Japanese incubators and angel investors.
The company, which was founded in 2020, said the round was co-led by Nuwa Capital, Shorooq Partners and 4DX Ventures as well as Saudi Arabia’s Abdul Majeed Al Hokair and Al Faisaliah Group and Japan’s Samurai Incubate.
The funds will be used to expand across Egypt and to lay the foundation for international expansion in the Middle East and Africa, the company said in a press release.
The Food Lab was founded by Egyptian entrepreneurs Kareem El Daly, Ahmed Osman, and Wesam Masoud, and works with 50 local and international food brands, including existing restaurants, as well as working with new outlets starting out on a model which allows them to go from concept to launch in 10 days.
El Daly, founder and president said: “Our mission is to bridge the gap between restaurants and consumers, and by building technology infrastructure, we are enabling the transformation of Egypt’s Food & Beverage (F&B) industry.”
Osman, co-founder and CEO, said job creation in the form of strategic hires remained a key priority alongside the further development of the company’s homegrown technology.
The company estimates Egyptians spend 30 percent of their income on food and said adoption of new technology will allow restaurateurs to scale growth rapidly.
(Writing by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Seban Scaria)