FoodCourt, the Y Combinator-backed food delivery service, said a redesign of its cooking processes led to nearly 100 employees being made redundant in May 2024. The three-year-old startup, which prepares its meals in dark kitchens and offers a delivery-only model, said customer feedback led to operational changes.
We got bigger kitchen equipment and started preparing a lot of the base ingredients instead of waiting for a customer to order before getting started with it, said Chef Tilewa Odedina, who manages FoodCourts kitchens.
Henry Nneji, FoodCourt CEO, told TechCabal that a key goal was to reduce meal preparation time to 20 minutes for its 10,000 active monthly customers. Yet, the optimisation is still a work in progress, with customers complaining about late orders on social media.
The startup raised $1.7 million earlier this year, a detail that has not been previously reported says it has an average order value of ?15,000 and is already profitable. CEO Nneji declined to share actual numbers.
The company claims cost efficiency is the key driver of profitability. You can make a lot of sales and be bleeding just as much cash, said Odedina.
