Restaurants “of The Future” Startup Accelerates Expansion in Pandemic

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The future of restaurants may be in progress in Latin America. RobinFood, a technology startup founded two years ago in Bogotá, is building a network for the post-pandemic era, with snack bars hardly in touch with the staff, as digital orders for meals that cost a few dollars are delivered or picked up in a state-of-the-art automatic machine.

With new investment by MGM Innova Capital, a Miami-based private equity firm, RobinFood plans to expand from 50 to 1,000 stores (a growth of 1,900 percent) over the next five years, making it one of the largest networks in the region.

The key to the model is that each unit will prepare meals for up to four of the company’s seven brands – which include rice bowls, hamburgers and pizza slices – in what is often called the “cloud cooking” concept, according to José Guillermo Calderón, the company’s CEO and co-founder.

“Covid has been very good for embracing digital alternatives,” Calderón said in an interview from Bogotá, where the company began in 2018 under the MUY brand. During the pandemic, “people like to limit human contact while having access to fresh food.”

RobinFood is part of an effort to find new business models after Covid-19 rocked the industry. Restaurants have resorted to selling groceries and sharing kitchen space.

The investment in the food business comes at a risky time, particularly in Latin America, the epicenter of the coronavirus. The Colombian Gastronomic Industry Association said more than half of its nearly 90,000 restaurants have closed.

RobinFood has raised a total of US$36 million and will need up to US$200 million for its expansion. It is a difficult task, but if successful, Calderón said an initial public offering could emerge by 2026.

Source: Bloomberg

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