No more sad desk lunches if this 500 Startups-backed service has its way

DishDash’s lovingly packed meals. Photo credit: DishDash.

Too much to do, too little time – work just keeps piling up so you can’t even afford to line up for a good lunch. You end up grabbing whatever’s easiest, or spend more ordering in. If only your employer provided food as a perk.

But what if your employer does want to provide you this perk – after all, a happy staff means increased productivity – how does it cater to your various needs and preferences?

That’s the problem DishDash solves. Based out of Singapore, the 500 Startups-backed outfit lets corporates buy hundreds of meals from multiple restaurants in a single order, then delivers it without a fee. Menus range in taste, from Asian to Western. Those menus also accommodate dietary restrictions like vegetarian or Halal diets. Apart from daily meals for staff, DishDash provides catering for team meetings and corporate events – all ordered in advance.

Data-focused

But there’s a twist. With each dish, the startup allows customers to track nutritional information like ingredients, calories, and sodium levels. All this data is available on the DishDash dashboard, where users also place their orders.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the firm serves only healthy food, the co-founders quickly clarified. “It’s easier for an individual to choose better habits when they’re aware of what they’re consuming,” explains Kim Ngo.

“It’s more of awareness, not a ‘healthy’ branding. It’s laying it all in front of our customers so they see what they’re eating,” adds Christian Schneider.

Because DishDash tracks this data, it enables employees to design custom meal plans. It also empowers HR departments to look at things like cohort analysis to determine if higher absenteeism rates correlate with unhealthy diets.

DishDash is upending the traditional catering industry, which is quite old-school, largely doing things manually, and offers limited food variety – often with no consideration for dietary restrictions.

For its restaurant partners, DishDash allows access to new customers and removes the hassle of taking orders and doing deliveries on their own. The startup has runners but doesn’t own a fleet of vehicles, only rents them. It gets a cut of the sales through its platform.

“Catering is one of the biggest corporate benefit programs. We estimate the corporate catering market in Singapore alone to be about SGD 500 million (US$350 million),” says Christian, citing their own research and a study by Euromonitor.

Early traction

Co-founders Chris Schneider and Kim Ngo. Photo credit: DishDash

The idea didn’t come out of the blue. Before setting up her own company, the food trouble was a pain Kim shared with many professionals like her. “Because my work was so important and I always had deadlines, I kind of just grabbed what was available. I thought there had to be a better way for me to consume food.”