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Two years ago, when the pandemic kept people at home, the food industry was largely abandoned. Some were not ready to accept online orders and others did not have a delivery network.
Startups like Fudo have added technology to help restaurants get back on their feet. In Fudo’s case, the Argentina-based company offers a web-based restaurant operating system and point-of-sale software that brings restaurant operations into a central “hub.” Now you can take orders, set schedules, manage deliveries, view purchases, manage inventory and get detailed analytics on it all in real time.
Fudo CEO Justo Ferraro told TechCrunch, “A lot of people know about the square and toast in the US, but Latin America is different. There’s a big difference between corporate restaurants and independent restaurants, and in the US, 30% are independent, while in Latin America, It’s 80%.”
That independent restaurant customer, perhaps the first adopter of restaurant operation technology, is who Fudo is targeting. As such, the company is making it more accessible by charging $25 to $50 per month.
Co-founder and CTO Juan Manuel Cullo had the idea for Fudon in 2014 after working as a developer at Restorando.com, which was acquired by Fork. Helping one of his restaurateur friends who bought some non-working software, Cuello began coding his own software.
Fudo table mockup for restaurants. Image Credits: Persecution
He launched the company before getting angel investment. Then the pandemic hit, prompting Cullo to do a “reset,” Ferraro said. That’s when Ferraro, who previously led Mercado Pago Point’s growth in Latin America, came on board, and a third co-founder and COO, Rafael Telles, a former executive at Mercado Pago, joined earlier this year.
Today, the company has a team of more than 70 employees in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. It has also grown 10x to support 10,000 restaurants.
In the year Latin American food service sales are estimated to reach $270 billion by 2021, Statista said. That’s what venture capitalists are paying attention to. For example, this year, companies like PreciTaste, Bear Robotics and Lunchbox received investment for their approaches to streamlining restaurant operations.
Among them, Fudo is currently raising $7.5 million in seed funding and attracting some celebrities in the process. The company’s first institutional funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, Atlantico and Maya Capital. They are joined by mutual funds, Goodwater and Latitude and a group of angel investors.
With this new capital injection, the startup plans to accelerate its expansion in Mexico, launch its Brazilian operation this month and develop additional financial products, initially to bring digital payments to the table, supporting small and medium-sized businesses in the sector. .
“We have a unique opportunity to be a one-stop shop in Latin America because this area is still very underserved,” Ferraro said. “We believe we can be the market standard, that’s why we passed this round. We really want to seize this opportunity.
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