A food start-up that had a business of delivering ready-to-cook meals to restaurants had faced a severe challenge in attracting investors. Most restaurants hire a chef to cook for their customers. Thus, restaurants that hire chefs don’t think of ready-to-cook meals as an option to serve their customers.
In addition to this, the ongoing economic crisis in Australia and the hike in food supplies also impacted the costs of restaurant food. The food company CoLab, formerly known as ChefPrep, had 30,000 customers at the time of its collaboration with ChefPrep, as it said.
Despite the backing from the millionaire entrepreneur Mark Bouris (founder of Wizard Home Loans and Yellow Brick Road) and after receiving a fund of $3 million last year from venture firms Artesian Ventures and Berlin-based Global Founders Capital, the company CoLab had come to default.
The founders of ChefPrep, Elle Curran and Josh Abulafia, have ready-to-cook meals and 1500 products of gourmet pantry food and drinks alongside gift packaging in their portfolio.
CoLab merged with ChefPrep a few months ago to expand its business and increase reach in places like Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth, as well as regional NSW and Victoria.
“The business was in discussions for acquisitions with several other businesses, and EY was appointed as administrator to manage the acquisition process,” they said.
Other companies in the food sector also faced turmoil in recent times.
- ‘A grocery delivery firm called Send, which challenged itself to deliver groceries in just 10 minutes, also faced a loss of $11 million in just eight months.’
- ‘Victorian food delivery company which rivaled UberEats and Deliveroo also laid off 200 employees due to financial stress.’ Other grocery delivery firms like ‘Voly’ and ‘Milkrun’ also stood on the list of collapsing start-ups.
- Published By Team Australia News
