Taster raises $37m for franchising expansion

The dark kitchen start-up Taster, which makes “delivery-only” food brands, has just raised $37m to use for further expansion. The capital was raised mostly from UK Octopus Ventures together with global venture capital firm Rakuten and investors Battery, Latitude and Heartcore.

Taster was founded just 4 years ago by former Deliveroo executive Anton Soulier. Unlike other dark kitchen brands ( including Deliveroo), Taster opened several high street locations where customers could see how the food is prepared. The focus is “on serving high quality food” […] ”not logistics” – in the words of its CEO and founder Soulier. Indeed Taster includes only “digital food brands” specifically designed to prepare delivery food – including Out Fry, Mission Saigon and A Burgers.

Taster, which recently launched in Strasbourg, is planning to expand next in Manchester and later in many other big cities in the UK and France. The company is going all-in with franchising with 100% of expansion to come from licensees. The restaurant partners will be charged a fees on each order (between 20-30%) and in exchange they will benefit of Taster’s supply chain, marketing support and have access to the big food delivery platforms like Deliveroo and Uber Eats.