<article>Indonesian ghost kitchen startup DishServe has shut down its business and operations, according to a recent LinkedIn <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7058681252895199233/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> by the startup’s CEO Rishabh Shinghi. </article>

Indonesian ghost kitchen startup DishServe has shut down its business and operations, according to a recent LinkedIn <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7058681252895199233/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> by the startup’s CEO Rishabh Shinghi. 
The current funding winter has impacted the company, wrote Singhi. “Initially our margins were low and we focused on growth, we exhausted much of our runway doing that. By the time we improved our margins, the runway was already too tight,” he continued.
Founded in 2020, DishServe connects underutilised kitchens to food and beverage brands. It upgrades the kitchen’s equipment and rents it to F&amp;B operators that use the kitchens as their last-mile distribution point to reach customers in different areas. The startup has a network of more than 200 kitchen partners in 10 cities. It also launched multiple F&amp;B brands and serviced more than 100,000 customers.
Singhi, who&#8217;s the former COO of RedDoorz, co-founded DishServe with other co-founders, namely CTO Fathhi Mohamed, Stefanie Irma, and Vinav Bhanawat.
Earlier in February, DishServe announced that it was pivoting its business model to focus on the automation of back-of-house operations for restaurants, cafes, and delivery-only kitchens. This includes food delivery app integrations, pricing and promotions automation, financial reconciliations, inventory management, supply chain and logistics, customer service, QR code-based dine-in, and more.
However, the business model pivot didn’t seem enough to save the company. DishServe’s last raised a seed round in 2021. The startup is backed by several investors including Insignia Ventures Partners, Rutland Partners, and Ratio Ventures, according to Crunchbase.
“We had a boring F&amp;B narrative which isn&#8217;t so sexy for the VC world now,” wrote Singhi on his LinkedIn page. “We weren&#8217;t able to convince enough people that our business can scale to a $100-million ARR [annual recurring revenue] business in the next 5-6 years.” He added that the startup tried to solve too many problems. It should have focused on one area only and started to monetise it earlier.
Cloud kitchens, which allow F&amp;B businesses to create and prepare food for delivery or takeout only, started to gain popularity during the pandemic in 2020 when restaurant dine-in was prohibited due to nationwide lockdowns. However, the business model faces a testing time post-pandemic. In December 2022, Grab discontinued its cloud kitchen service GrabKitchen in Indonesia after four years of operations.

Padma Priya

Indonesian ghost kitchen startup DishServe has shut down its business and operations, CEO Rishabh Shinghi said in a LinkedIn post.

Indonesian F&B startup DishServe shuts down operations

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief

Indonesian F&B startup DishServe shuts down operations

Start your deal-making journey now!

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief