Food tech start-up Cook My Grub exceeds its initial fundraising target by 150%

Berkshire-based business, Cook My Grub, has exceeded its initial fundraising target by 150%, raising over £750,000 in just four weeks after receiving major investor interest.

The challenger brand, which was conceived and launched within only seven months, is expected to shake up the food industry with a revolutionary platform that provides hungry local diners with access to home-cooked food that isn’t available on the high street.

In the past quarter alone, the tech business has seen a 300% uplift in orders, 100% growth in customers, and a 200% increase in active users. Coupled with the success of its Crowdcube campaign, the start-up, which is the UK’s leading marketplace for home-cooked food, has unveiled ambitious expansion plans to rapidly scale, building the sales, marketing and operations teams in order extend its reach to other parts of the UK.

Funds will also be invested in expanding Cook My Grub’s technology team, which implements the industry leading cloud, AI and Machine Learning solutions required to connect qualified, home chefs with nearby customers hungry for authentic home-cooked food.

The founders Dinesh Patil and Shabbir Mookhtiar, said: “It’s been an outstanding start to 2021 as we seek to build healthier, happier, and wealthier communities across the UK. The speed at which we’ve secured our funding proves that our simple solution fills a clear gap in the market for diners looking to order authentic home-cooked food from local chefs in a safe and controlled marketplace.

“Not only are we making the genuinely home-cooked food market accessible, Cook My Grub provides a platform for up-and-coming chefs to build their reputation and chase their ambitions to make a living out of cooking. With hospitality being one of the hardest hit sectors by Covid-19, there has never been a greater need for a service such as ours. As well as our rapidly increasing customers and orders, we’ve tripled the number of registered chefs on the app, which sets firm foundations for us as we push to be operational in another 10 UK towns and cities before the end of the year.”

Cook My Grub’s innovative app, which allows home chefs to develop personal profiles before preparing healthy meals that are delivered to locals’ doors, is an industry-first, and is expected to consolidate the home-cooked food market by providing a simple and user-friendly structure in an otherwise disorganised sector.

Upon opening the app, customers are presented with a wide selection of cuisines from home chefs who have set up their own 'virtual restaurants' which provide the flexibility to decide when, what and how much they cook. Customers can order on the day or pre-order several days or even weeks in advance before enjoying their meal safe in the knowledge that their food has been safely prepared within the confines of the Food Standard Authority’s framework.