Delhi's Kitchens Centre Raises Pre-Series A Round From Village Global The startup will utilize the fresh capital to further scale up operations and expand into newer markets in India

Delhi-based shared kitchen startup Kitchens Centre on Thursday announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A from US-based Village Global. The funding comes on the heels of the startup raising a seed fund of $500,000 in April this year from AngelList India.

Founded in 2019 by Lakshay Jain, Kitchens Centre is a shared kitchen startup that provides infrastructure, technology solutions and more, for online food and FMCG brands. The ready to move-in-kitchens has helped a lot of brands to launch their operations swiftly and mark its presence.

Commenting on the startup, Lakshay Jain, said, "Kitchens Centres is providing a dedicated and sustainable solution for businesses to grow and produce a high order volume and sales. With the obvious benefit being the reduction of cost, we also aim to create an incubated ecosystem with integrated tech solutions, supply chain, logistics support and platform aggregation. Moreover with the pandemic still very much prevalent, the food delivery business is prospering and gaining momentum in the food services industry."

Started with one location, Delhi, within a span of one year it has expanded its operations in over 35 locations across 15 cities. The startup currently boasts of over 200 kitchen units and works with over 50 F&B brands such as Choka La, Biryani Blues, Cross Border Kitchen, Sleepy Owl and others. The startup aims to increase to add more than 90 locations and 550 units over the next one year.

On the investment, Erik Torenberg, co-founder, Village Global, said, "Kitchens Centre data-driven approach to property acquisition and sales management ensures maximisation of occupancy and unit economics. They consider various idiosyncratic factors such as cuisine share/gap, composition of user cohorts and associated AOV, etc., to target a specific location within a city. India is one of the largest and fastest growing F&B consumption markets and Kitchens Centre is rightly placed to address a market gap. It is enabling restaurants, food entrepreneurs as well as FMCG brands to take advantage of the boom in delivery/ logistics and achieve higher ROI—minimal capital outlay and faster go-to-market. We see significant investment opportunities in this ecosystem."

Village Global is an early-stage venture capital firm backed by the marquee entrepreneurs such as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and others.