Ex-RedDoorz COO’s cloud kitchen firm closes down

One of the startup’s promotion photos / Photo credit: DishServe

DishServe, an Indonesia-based cloud kitchen firm, has shut down after nearly three years, according to a LinkedIn post by CEO and co-founder Rishahb Singhi.

DishServe helps food and beverage brands as well as other cloud kitchen companies expand in Indonesia through its network of kitchens. Partner brands can send pre-cooked food to DishServe’s locations, where workers will heat and package products for delivery.

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Singhi, a former COO at RedDoorz, launched the firm in 2020 alongside co-founders Vinav Bhanawat, Fathhi Mohamed, and Stefanie Irma.

Singhi said DishServe had built a network of over 200 kitchen partners, servicing over 100,000 customers across 10 Indonesian cities. However, the startup exhausted much of its runway on growth efforts despite having low margins.

“We had a boring food and beverage narrative which isn’t so sexy for the VC world now,” Singhi wrote. “We weren’t able to convince enough people that our business can scale to a US$100 million annual recurring revenue business in the next five to six years.”

He adds that DishServe was trying to solve too many problems, such as food production, brand creation, as well as supply chain and distribution.

In 2020, the startup bagged an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Insignia Ventures Partners, as well as another undisclosed pre-series A funding in 2021. The company lists 48 employees on its LinkedIn page.

See also: Exclusive: RedDoorz lays off about 90 employees in ‘non-core’ markets