Kuala Lumpur-based food startup Dahmakan has raised USD 18 million worth of fresh investment in a Series B funding round. The new funding comes from various investors which include Rakuten Capital, White Star Capital, Jafco Asian, and the GEC-KIP Fund. Other participants were Korean food delivery unicorn Woowa Brothers, the former CEO of Nestlé Germany, as well as existing investors Partech Partners and Y Combinator.
The company will use the new capital to continue building its end-to-end operating system that powers the entire value chain from product development to last-mile delivery from a network of satellite distribution kitchens.
Founded in 2015 by former Foodpanda executives Jonathan Weins, Jessica Li, and Christian Edelman, Dahmakan offers food prepared in cloud kitchens with no dine-in facilities, making delivery its sole purpose. “Our mission from day one was to build a chef-made, food delivery product that supported the selection and price point for the mass market to use every day. We knew, from our experience launching Foodpanda in Hong Kong, that removing high delivery and operating costs, while bringing food closer to the consumer, would be a core part of this mission,” said the firm’s CEO Jonathan Weins in an official statement.
Dahmakan’s operating system makes its satellite distribution kitchens more profitable and easier to operate than most major quick-service restaurants, Weins added.
In an interview with KrASIA last year, Dahmakan’s COO Jessica Li said that the platform applies AI and machine learning along the entire supply chain, including predictive analytics to forecast sales and for the food product development process. Its AI-powered operating system automates 80% of the workflow in both food production and in delivery, thus eliminating the need for humans to make complex decisions in real-time.
Dahmakan’s services are available in Malaysia and Thailand where customers can order food to be delivered to their locations using its website and mobile app. The product offering constantly changes with more than 40 new dishes every month from a growing database of over 2,000 tested dishes, starting at a price point of USD 3, the statement said.
In 2017, Dahmakan was the first Malaysian startup to be accepted into Y Combinator. This new investment brings the company’s total funding to USD 28 million.