Keeps chefs out of the pressure cooker, but still in the kitchen, booking platform ChefMe cooks up €700,000

Copenhagen-based private chef booking platform ChefMe has raised €700,000 in a pre-seed funding round. The capital will be used to further solidify its position as the Nordics’ leading private chefs platform, expand to new markets, and create new features on par with the level of excellence demanded by its users and providers. Since 2016, ChefMe has raised a mere ≈ €900,000.

The pre-seed round was led by angel investor Bjørn Bruun and HumanAct VC with the participation of Rockstart and Moonraker Ventures.

Let’s face it, restaurant work isn’t easy. By any standard. The artists that craft intricate delicacies day in, and day out are often overworked, overburdened, underappreciated, and if I had to guess (or having recently watched Boiling Point), operating on severe sleep depravity. But they do what they do because the love of what they do outweighs the torture of what they do.

Toss a global pandemic that forced the closure of public dining spaces into the mix, thereby depriving these cuisiniers of a livelihood, and it should come as no surprise that a great number of them were forced to make ends meet and found new jobs.

But as restrictions lifted, there was an accompanying percentage of these chefs chose not to return to the pressure cooker of a restaurant. The jobs that they’d found paid the bills and perhaps even offered a good night's sleep. 

But art is a calling, a vocation, an obligation. Something far greater than just a job.

And thus, ChefMe has become an increasingly viable option for chefs, some 600+, that desire to practice their art and still keep the lights and heating on at home.

Handling everything from birthdays to weddings to Christmas lunches, ChefMe provides a platform connecting (and booking) those that love eating food with those that love preparing it.

A ChefMe user, Danish TV chef Henrik Boserup offers, “I have been using ChefMe for some time now, and one of the things I really love about the service is the fact that ChefMe enables me to focus on what I’m good at, creating memorable food experience for hosts and their guests. ChefMe sources customers, handles payment, and makes sure the business side of things runs smoothly, so basically all the things I don’t have time to do.”

ChefMe is not alone in its offer, as what the UK's Yhangry has on the menu sounds remarkably similar. 

Lead image: Sebastian Coman Photography.