London-based Peckwater cooks up £15 million to speed up food delivery

London-based company Peckwater Brands has raised £15 million in funding to develop its technology that enables kitchen operators to succeed at delivery – including machine learning-generated menus and operations performance improvements.

The Series A round was led by one of the UK’s largest pub companies, Stonegate Group. The company has now taken a minority stake in Peckwater Brands, after trialing Peckwater’s services in some of its pubs. Japan’s Softbank Investments, whose activity has slowed as of late, as well as existing investors Fuel Ventures and Pembroke VCT also participated in the investment.

The latest funding round, which follows a £3 million seed round in October 2021, brings the company’s valuation to £65 million. The cash infusion will go towards the development of Peckwater’s kitchen operator technology, including menus generated through machine learning. The company had earlier raised £3 million in a seed funding round in October 2021.

Moving forward, Peckwater Brands will use the new cash to speed up its expansion. This will include the development of its U.S. division, which was launched in Miami in early 2022. Peckwater Brands also plans to expand further into Europe, with sites in France and Belgium due to launch in the coming months. The company currently operates in over 150 sites in the U.K.

Founded in 2019, the platform helps develop a virtual brand of restaurant chains operating a delivery-only service without the need for a physical location.

The startup is not the only one that is wooing the VCs with its virtual branding model. Several delivery-only food brands, driven by data-led customer insight, have joined the race in Europe. Aiming to make great food available everywhere, the Finnish startup Huuva raised €4.9 million in funding to deliver restaurant offerings outside city limits. Ghent-based Casper raised €5 million in a Series A funding round to operate a delivery and take-out-only restaurant service.

Talking about its future plans, Sam Martin, co-founder and CEO of Peckwater Brands said: “Given the rapid success we’ve seen in the U.K., we’ve now set our sights on the international stage. We have established a strong presence within the U.S. and UAE. We are also set to make waves across Europe in the near future.”

Leo Bradshaw, co-founder and executive chair of Peckwater Brands added: “The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for disruption within the hospitality sector. Our innovative use of technology, combined with our expert knowledge of brand management and hospitality has transformed the way restaurants, bars – essentially any venue with a kitchen – approaches branding and customer reach.”