Krasnodar food technology startup Qummy has closed a new investment round worth 93 million rubles. This is what the founder of the company, Evgeny Pisarev, told RB.RU.
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The investors were the Voskhod Fund (40 million rubles), Alexander Eronin (30 million rubles), the Moscow Seed Fund (22 million rubles), Dauren Toktamysov (1 million rubles). The project raised part of the funds at the end of 2023, the second at the beginning of this year.
If we estimate the cost of Qummy based on analogues such as DoorDash, the estimate will be 0.9 to 1.3 billion rubles. DoorDash is not a very good alternative because it delivers, it doesn’t cook, and it doesn’t use a robot oven. Probably the most accurate analogue would be the Blue Apron company, but its history on the stock market (2017-2023) was not successful,” said Finam analyst Leonid Delitsyn.
The company did not disclose its valuation after the round, but said it was “significantly higher” than analysts expected.
According to Ivan Fedyakov, CEO of INFOline, ready-to-consume products are now a very promising topic that is being adopted by large companies, including related industries. In general, this segment is growing and technologies that increase efficiency here can be interesting and in demand and therefore attractive for investment.
Qummy prepares foods without preservatives in factory kitchens and then freezes them using the company’s “smart ice” technology. The final consumer needs to heat the food in a special robotic oven.
- Qummy was founded in 2019. At the same time, the project attracted 9 million rubles and in 2020 another 57 million rubles from private investors. The startup focused on working with the B2B segment: hotels, gas stations, bars, cafes.
- In 2021, a Krasnodar startup closed a $1.6 million round from a group of investors. With the funds received, the company decided to develop in the markets of the United Arab Emirates and the United States, but the projects there subsequently had to be suspended. Pisarev did not mention the reasons for his decision in a conversation with RB.RU.
- In November 2021, Qummy entered the B2C market and launched food delivery with a robotic heating oven.
- In 2022, the company raised $3.6 million from the Voskhod fund, Joint Journey Sergei Dashkov and business angel Rinat Salikhov.
- In 2023, according to the Kontur.Focus system, Kyumi LLC’s income amounted to 272.9 million rubles, the net loss was 82.5 million rubles. According to Pisarev, this year 2024, Qummy plans to increase revenue up to 505 million rubles and EBITDA by 1%.
Author:
Karina Pardaeva
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
