Kenyan Foodtech startup Kune raises $1m pre-seed funding

Kenyan Foodtech startup Kune delivers freshly-made, ready-to-eat meals at affordable prices and has announced it closed $1m in pre-seed funding round to help its scaling process. The funding round was led by Launch Africa Ventures, with anchor investments from Century Oak Capital GmbH and Consonance.

Kune was launched in 2020 by French entrepreneur Robin Reecht. The startup’s food delivery service aims to provide Kenyans access to freshly prepared meals at affordable prices. Aimed at solving the massive lack of quality affordable meals for all social groups, Kune’s ready meals promise to be at least half, if not three times, less than the typical price of restaurants and fast food.

The startup ran a successful pilot in early 2021 and has now announced it will launch its freshly made meals and on-demand delivery service in August, upon building its capacity to produce up to 5,000 servings a day to Kenyans.

Upon operations, all Kune meals will be made and packaged on-site at its factory “hub” and then delivered on-demand directly to its online customers and its retail and corporate customers.

Robin Reecht speaking on the funding said that the startup has done enough structuring and is delighted to be attracting investors already. In his words:

“After three intensive months spent structuring the company, finding land for our factory, and hiring key team members, I started fundraising. I’m delighted that Kune has attracted this level of interest from investors who immediately saw the potential to grow Kune not only in Kenya but across Sub-Saharan Africa” said Reecht.

Baljinder Sharma, director of Launch Africa Ventures also added that Launch Africa is delighted to be part of Kune’s progress and is looking forward to the startup growth.

“Launch Africa is excited to be leading the first round of financing for this exciting new startup in the Kenyan food sector. Leveraging the cloud kitchen model and owning the entire supply chain provides a massive growth and scaling opportunity for Kune Africa, and we are looking forward to seeing the business take off and grow,” said Baljinder.