Amid the dramatic change in the dine-out landscape, thousands of local food stores and small restaurants have shut down permanently in the US and across the globe. While these empty storefronts continue to haunt many communities, online food ordering traffic has grown 300% faster compared to traditional dine-in facilities. According to a recent survey, 60% of US consumers order delivery or takeout at least once a week. In such a scenario, local restaurants need to adapt to the changing winds in order to win.
That’s where Forward Kitchens– a company focused on fostering world-class digital storefronts for independent restaurants in the US, comes into the picture. Part of the Y Combinator Summer 2019 cohort, Forward Kitchens supports independent restaurants to create specialized brands from their existing kitchen to stimulate slack capacity, drive more orders, and increase revenue significantly without compromising on efficiency.
The future-proof concept that recently announced a $2.5M seed round helps restaurants use their current inventory & resources to rethink the way they can use their space and culinary expertise. It is a no-brainer that food enthusiasts have grown bored of the same old generic menus and want something different to savor. The in-house experts at Forward Kitchens carefully analyze the changing consumer needs in a competitive market to curate a custom & compelling menu for restaurants with a fresh take. Who would have thought that it’s possible for restaurants to increase sales with no extra investment? Forward Kitchens’ strategic virtual kitchen concept has turned this possibility into reality. Now, restaurants can easily attract a whole new segment of audience interested in enjoying the rich flavors of local cuisines without stepping out of their home. This also allows chefs to explore their creativity and experiment with global flavors to create a specialized digital brand that has the potential to double their online presence across third-party food delivery apps.
Raghav is the CEO and co-founder of Forward Kitchens, a food-tech startup backed by Y Combinator, Floodgate, Slow Ventures, SV Angel along with prominent angels like James Beshara, Ram Sriram, Jeff Morris, and Ed Roman. Raghav studied Computer Science at Columbia University and graduated in 2019 after which he joined Y Combinator’s Summer 2019 batch. Raghav, who has been a foodie all his life, used to rely on food delivery and pickup services quite often. Soon after his interactions with the owners of various independent restaurants, Raghav realized that many of these restaurants did not have an online presence. Additionally, these restaurants had the ability to cook cuisines representative of their communities. With Forward Kitchens, Raghav aims to better allocate underutilized kitchens and help mom and pop restaurants earn additional revenue through their kitchens.
Speaking about the unique proposition of Forward Kitchens and how it is empowering independent restaurants to thrive, Raghav Poddar, Founder of Forward Kitchens, said, “Digitization of the restaurant industry is inevitable with online sales growing year over year. Virtual storefronts allow a restaurant to venture into new cuisines and offerings while maintaining costs which is why Forward Kitchens has been able to grow rapidly. Any restaurant that has extra capacity should be signing up for Forward Kitchens.”
In the food business, a hard pill to swallow is that even with a busy kitchen, a B&M restaurant can never operate at full capacity. Creating a virtual storefront solves this problem for once and for all by allowing kitchens to nurture multiple brands without any limitation of capacity whatsoever. Additionally, the concept at its core is all about delivery efficiency so businesses can do away with investing hefty amounts on a professional front-of-house team, a prerequisite to providing an opulent fine-dining experience. With Forward Kitchens’ disruptive concept, restaurants can easily fulfill on-demand delivery of cuisines that are not immediately available in the neighborhood and increase sales by over 50%.
