Not So Dark steps into the light in $80 million round

Paris-based online brand food delivery industry solution Not So Dark has raised $80 million in a Series B funding round led by Kharis Capital and Verlinvest in partnership with Conviviality Ventures. The new capital is slated to be used to further expand the startup’s virtual food delivery franchise model across Europe. To date, the company has raised a total of $105 million.

It’s no secret that the pan(dem)ic saw the triumphant rise of the dark kitchen (and warehouse), a nascent industry to fed the beast. In so much Not So Dark was  just another virtual food brand creator with delivery-only menus sold on UberEats and Deliveroo. One that was deployed across France in less than a year. 

However, seeing the writing on the wall, eight months ago Not So Dark founders Clément Benoit (former founder and CEO of Stuart and prolific investor) and Alexandre Haggai (former operations and logistics manager at Stuart) pivoted the business to cater to actual restaurants working out of, well, I guess we would now say light(?) kitchens.

Not So Dark, or NSD as the kids say these days, provides restaurants with a soup-to-nuts solution, offering restaurants a digitised ordering system that includes built-in marketing features running in tandem with AI-powered optimisation functions.

According to the company, they’ve secured the patronage of 150 partners that operate in more than 100 cities and, “are generating millions in monthly revenue.”

“Pivoting and starting from zero was a massive undertaking. But we saw so clearly that the future of the online delivery industry was in forging partnerships with traditional restaurants – not competing with them,” commented Benoit.

NSD’s $80 million Series B round was led by Kharis Capital and Verlinvest in partnership with Conviviality Ventures.

“We’ve studied the dark kitchens market and watched its rapid development. We believe NSD cracked the model that essentially allows all parties involved to profitably grow their business while offering customers alternative and convenient food offerings,” said Kharis Capital’s Daniel Grossman. “In just one year, Not So Dark has already established itself as a major figure in the sector.”