About

WeCook is a company with the long-term vision of reshaping the food supply chain around sustainable, circular economies of scale, democratized revenue distribution and steward ownership structures. The first step in achieving our proposed revolution is to build the shared physical infrastructure and associated technologies required to empower talented cooks (food product creators) to eschew the hurdles required to open and operate a traditional business (restaurant, retail or otherwise) and enable them to become freelance chef-entrepreneurs by selling products on our digital platform. The solution, in this case, is the construction of a large-scale, shared production kitchen facility, the development of a digital marketplace (app) and the additional provision of all required services necessary to operate both (fundraising, legal, marketing, analytics, etc.). From the initial product (ready to eat meals/items prepared by individual chef micro-brands and delivered on-demand via electric vehicle) WeCook envisions an expanding product line to include proprietary grocery and retail food items, meal kits, raw ingredients and more.

Solution & Product

WeCook provides a two-way solution including the physical and digital infrastructure to launch and run a microbusiness. The physical infrastructure is a collaborative production kitchen complete with state of the art equipment, multiple cooking stations, two onsite chefs for education and oversight, an onsite grocery for purchasing ingredients, and everything that a chef requires to produce a food product for sale and delivery. The digital infrastructure is an app that functions as an online marketplace for chefs not only to sell and distribute their product, but also to develop and create a brand and ongoing customer following. For the consumer, the app is a content rich and immersive experience that goes beyond food ordering, payments and delivery, and offers the conscious eater a host of interactivity and services including nutrition and meal planning, cooking demonstrations and recipes, and internal social networks connecting eaters and food-producers to replace that which has been lost via existing convenience apps. We additionally provide services to manage and optimize these businesses, such as data analysis, cost analysis, budgeting, and so on, allowing us to curate locally-produced, home style, sustainable food for delivery on demand and to deliver the daily food demands of conscious eaters with the same convenience as competitors.

Innovation & Scalability

Relative to other food convenience technologies, our model allows us to own and curate not only the logistics of meals but also their production while enabling chefs to become chef-entrepreneurs with minimal cost. In effect, the participating creators collaborate to produce a full-fledged menu made up only of the items each one considers uncompromisingly their best product. The fusion of social-style content with delivery on-demand enables for the reconnection of eaters to their food sources, complete with recipes, demos, chef-profiles, meal planning and food education. This allows users to become lifestyle subscribers who enjoy the convenience of delivery with the ongoing daily upgrades of sustainability, nutrition, home-style food and social engagement. Once at scale, Application of big data allows for the optimization of hyper-local communities, leading to leveraging and vertical integration of the supply chain, eliminating waste and other inefficiencies, and creating a more frictionless and profitable digital infrastructure for the food industry. Several ancillary revenue streams are designed for future scaling, involving enterprise offerings, a product incubator for scalable and retail products, heat and serve products, meal-kits, mobile production facilities, etc. As we expand both the physical and technological infrastructure, we will leverage scale to further optimize these communities, ultimately becoming a daily part of our users’ eating lifestyle.

Traction & achievements

WeCook is approaching its initial public product launch, pursuant to an internally managed beta launch based in an expanding user base of several hundred users and multiple enterprise clients, initially built during a proof of concept pilot program deployed in Spring of 2022. The company has already completed both a seed and A round of funding with a diverse group of investors ranging from Angels to institutional investors all of whom add genuine value beyond funds in the form of personal networks, synergistic portfolio companies, and high level B2B relationships. The construction of the first WeCook production kitchen facility is complete and licensed to conduct business. The mobile app and website have been designed and built for a lite-version beta deployment with multiple add-on features designed and being developed. A queue of eager chef-freelancers have been engaged with more than 20 chefs having completed LOIs and many more expressing verbal commitments. Key daily operational positions have been filled including the in-house chef team, regular operations managers, and business and administrative roles. Enterprise level clients have been tentatively engaged including B2B companies and consultants who assure WeCook of quick if company moderated growth within the sector. Multiple high-level third-party partnerships and synergies have been established for the long-term, such as Electrolux, our exclusive and ongoing equipment provider.

Team & Why Us

The WeCook team is a diverse collection of individuals with a complex matrix of skills and experience that integrate to form a comprehensive solution to the requirements of the business’ success. CEO and Co-founder Ioustinos Sarris comes to the projects after a 15-year background in tech startups with experience as founder, CEO and product manager for various digital technologies. COO and Co-founder Jordan Lari spent almost 20 years operating diverse hospitality businesses in New York City as well as hospitality related technologies. Leonardo Valettas, Lead Advisor and Investment Director began his career as a hospitality owner and operator and held high-level development & strategic positioning positions at large scale food businesses, such as MacDonald’s, Goody’s and Just Falafel before shifting his career emphasis to wealth management, impact investing and steward ownership. In-house chefs Dimitris Papapanagiotou & Giorgos Papathanasiou bring over 25 years of experience from Michelin starred restaurants and 5-star hotels throughout England, Greece, France and Ireland. Additional long term team members include architects, food stylists, and UX designers (Karolos Michailidis, Simone De Nardi, and Natalia Kristali, respectively). The investment and advisory team, furthermore, includes fund managers, serial entrepreneurs, and legal experts all with personal histories launching and growing business to and beyond successful exits.

Funding Needs

For the moment, WeCook has completed the necessary funding requirements to go to market and operate into the short to medium term future. As considerable interest from investors persists, currently interested investors are offered the potential to discuss investing in WeCook in the form of convertible bonds to be converted in future fundraising rounds. The company anticipates an upcoming B round of fundraising in the planned interest of expanding the business model, facilitated first through the existing network of investors with some opportunity to take on new investors, within the next 3-12 months. Additional funds raised via government programs, bond investors or otherwise will be dedicated to the accelerated development of features within WeCook’s digital technology, increased market expenditure as deemed prudent weighed against operational parameters, and an accelerated eye towards infrastructure expansion, real estate investment, et. al.