Disrupting corporate food delivery

Dana Baki and Mohammad Al Zaben .

Every day at lunch two friends, Mohammad Al Zaben and Dana Baki, faced the same problem - the limited options for meals, coupled with high delivery charges, packed schedules and mediocre menus. What happens next? Bingo, launch of Lunch:On as both friends decide to disrupt corporate food delivery and bring relief to corporate world.
Mohammad Al Zaben, co-founder and chief executive officer, Lunch:On, said: "The company was born from a small and manual test in late 2015, where we set out to study the requirements of both corporate employees and restaurant operations. The market potential we uncovered was astounding - people craved a fresh approach to lunch at work and restaurants were all looking to crack the corporate lunch space."
The firm sends customers in each office a curated menu via SMS text or e-mail with meat, vegetarian and healthier "lite" options from new restaurants daily. To order, a customer simply replies with their choice before 11:00am and food is delivered to their office at lunchtime. Users order a delicious lunch in seconds, while restaurants benefit from bulk orders to corporates.
"Our mission, from the start, was to leverage technology to empower workplaces by bringing the joy of food to the office, while creating economies of scale for our partner restaurants.
This early focus and investment in building the right infrastructure enabled us to scale quickly and become an automated "virtual canteen" that pairs employees with their favourite lunches with super easy ordering. We have re-invented food in the workplace with our "message-to-order" platform that gives employees a simple, intuitive and cost effective way to eat everyday, while streamlining operations and maximising efficiency for restaurants. It's a win-win for both," said Dana Baki, co-founder and chief operational officer, Lunch:On.
Lunch:On has been operational since March 2016 and growing at about 25 per cent month-on-month basis and is planning expansion next year.
According to Baki, former employee of Procter & Gamble in the US for seven plus years, most of their customers are working professionals - between the age of 25 years and 45 years - in industries like advertising, technology, consulting and banking.
"The UAE market is extremely diverse and by serving thousands of employees across industries, we see the whole spectrum of the UAE's multicultural community. Given this diversity, we knew early on that pleasing everyone, and at scale, would be difficult. We, therefore, heavily invested in building our in-house predictive technology and scheduling algorithms that optimise our daily offerings at each company we serve. Our system, that we affectionately named "Cindy", processes hundreds of thousands of data points to factor in things like customer preferences, ordering patterns, and even the day of the week, to ensure the optimal pairing of companies, restaurants and specific meals we feature on any given day," added Baki.
Although the food delivery space is busy, Lunch:On saw a unique need and consumer base that was not being addressed - corporates and their employees. "We created a customer experience to meet their unique needs, it had to be the simplest and most efficient way to get a delicious and affordable lunch daily with no delivery fees. Our customers are busy, the only thing we want to add to their plates is lunch. To optimise costs, we aggregate demand by office and currently serve companies where 30 or more employees are signed up - having this density of customers in each office allows us to "bundle" orders. By sending a bunch of orders to the same place at the same time, we're able to eliminate the huge delivery costs typically associated with food delivery. These savings are passed on to the customer, along with negotiated bulk pricing, to offer them lunches that are delicious and well-priced," added Zaben.
The company offers compelling business model for restaurants, offering them bulk orders to corporates that are usually difficult for them to reach.
Zaben - former assistant vice-president at Barclays - explains that recently the company has expanded beyond the original model with 'Lunch:On Catering', a platform that gives office admins a new, easy way to get catered food for their internal meetings and events.
"Through this new platform, office admins are able to order platters, plan food for events or order the traditional Lunch:On boxed meals for their teams, with just a few clicks. This part of the business has taken off quite quickly, as we have learned that corporate catering is a huge pain point for those involved."
Endorsing Zaben's views, Baki, said: "As people are spending most of their time in the office, the need for simple and convenient corporate eating solutions is becoming more crucial, and we are dedicated and determined to build a business that meets those needs."
The company has closed a $500,000 seed round last November which was led by Wamda Capital, with Arzan VC and Dubai Angel Investors Group participating as well and are now finalising a bigger round of seed funding with existing investors and new strategic ones on board.
"What interested us in Lunch:On was how quickly they on-board large companies and, by delivering each company's meals together, they are simplifying operations, reducing costs and passing those savings on to their customers. They have clearly uncovered an unmet need and built a business that breaks the traditional food delivery paradigm. We are very happy to have invested in them from the start. They have unlocked something really interesting and we are excited to continue backing them as they scale," Khaled Talhouni, managing partner at Wamda Capital, said.
Kareem Kaddoura, business development manager Lunch:On, says that Lunch:On is the food-at-work experience that brings the office together every day. The best places to work in Dubai host Lunch:On because they know it is a perk that keeps their employees happy and productive. Some of the companies we serve have also started to sponsor lunches through our platform because it supports their strategy of attracting and retaining top talent.
- sandhya@khaleejtimes.com