Making the restaurant industry more accessible, affordable and fair, Chups has launched the first online marketplace connecting kitchens who can handle more demand with virtual brands looking to test new markets. Empowering innovative concepts, food bloggers, cooking influencers and recipe developers to feed their audiences while solving an issue of underutilized restaurant resources, Chups is poised to democratize the world of to-go food. With Chups, virtual brands directly support restaurant revenue while accessing new markets with minimal risk, cost, and effort.
Chups helps independent restaurants and virtual concepts get out from under the distorted convenience culture third party apps have created, giving consumers the opportunity to support the businesses by ordering directly, picking up and sidestepping steep charges. No longer will independent restaurateurs have to watch profits shrink despite increased orders due to third party apps’ punitive 15-30% fees. No longer will virtual brands be limited to ghost kitchens and expensive, dehumanizing delivery services. Breaking the current ‘cloud kitchens’ model, consumers will be able to interact with virtual brands at a physical location, adding brand loyalty, customer service and connection back into the equation.
“Chups is the real solution to existing problems. Helping brick-and-mortar kitchens reach their full potential, our community-forward approach lets small brands, not behemoth corporations, share resources and profits,” says Irfan Mohammed, Co-founder of Chups. “We’re shifting the focus to the people behind the counter and in the kitchen, in order to address their needs, as opposed to creating a business that is only focused on its own profits.”
Essentially teleporting brands to wherever they want to go, Chups uses technology to resolve restaurant challenges. Filling pockets while filling bellies, the Chups platform establishes mutually beneficial partnerships between virtual brands and restaurants, introducing consumers to new cuisines. Virtual brands purchase restaurant capacity via Chups in a market they’re interested in, and then use Chups to sell their menu in that market. Minimizing start-up costs, increasing the speed to launch, and as brief as a three week commitment, Chups shatters the ceiling of what it means to run a restaurant.
Chups is data-driven and transparent, giving both restaurants and virtual brands access to their customer’s data. Before Chups, restaurants have been forced to partner with third party delivery apps in order to host a virtual brand. These delivery platforms consume all first party consumer data, information arguably more valuable than commissions as evidenced by these companies’ unprofitable business model and collective loss of billions of dollars.
This revolutionary online marketplace was co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Saminathan Susaimanickam, Jeevanandam Arockiasamy and Irfan Mohammed. The forward thinking trio has been working together on various ventures for the past 12 years. Tech savvy restaurateurs with over 40 years of experience between them, Susaimanickam and Arockiasamy have long been using technology to address challenges within their own businesses. Developing unique, innovative solutions, Mohammed, coming from a strong background in corporate strategy, encouraged the joint formation of a sustainable business. Built on the resolution of deeply rooted issues in the restaurant industry, Chups was created in 2016 as a pop-up platform for restaurant brands. Initially encountering resistance, the pandemic accelerated the acceptance of technological solutions for the restaurant industry. While the platform has evolved over the years, the goal of helping pre-existing businesses and bringing new concepts to the market remains the same.
