Amsterdam-based Peckish bag €100K to address labour shortages, growing food costs in restaurants

Amsterdam-based Peckish, a B2B startup that enables sustainable growth for F&B businesses by automating inventory management and optimising the supply chain, announced on Tuesday that it has secured €100K in a fresh round of funding.

The investment came from Singapore’s early-stage venture capital firm Antler. 

Antler wants to create thousands of companies globally that solve ‘real’ problems. It partners with people across six continents and in 25 cities to launch and scale high-potential startups that address meaningful opportunities and challenges.

The firm has already invested in and helped build over 600 companies across a wide range of industries and technologies, and plans to back more than 6,000 by 2030.

Ronald Jan Schuurs, Partner at Antler, says, “We are happy to partner with Peckish to tackle the food waste problem, labour shortages and rising food costs.”

“From the beginning, it was clear that Harpreet and Sebastien (founders) have deep insights into the restaurant industry. Both of them have families active in the space and their time at Uber Eats adds valuable insights on how to make the lives of restaurateurs just so much better,” he adds.

Sustainable growth for F&B businesses

Founded in 2023 by Harpreet Singh and Sebastien Pradier, Peckish aims to revolutionise the restaurant sector by addressing significant issues such as labour shortages and growing food costs by leveraging AI and digitisation.

Peckish mentions in a statement that since COVID, there have been labour shortages in the restaurant industry and increased food prices, making it difficult for businesses to thrive. 

Despite this, restaurant owners and managers continue to struggle with manual data input and analysis, which may take up to 20 hours per week for each site, or half of an employee’s employment. 

Furthermore, the lack of transparency and flexibility in the food supply chain leads to inefficiencies such as receiving incorrect or spoiled goods and needing to satisfy minimum order amounts that jeopardise freshness or require expensive purchases.

To address this issue, Peckish is creating a smart operations platform by integrating supply chain integrations, computer vision, and predictive analytics. 

This platform will provide restaurant managers with actionable insights and automated recommendations, enabling them to make decisions more quickly and with better knowledge. 

Peckish claims that it can lower restaurant management expenses up to 10 times, saving both time and money while also reducing food waste and encouraging sustainability. 

Singh says, “With Peckish, establishments of all sizes can now have access to advanced tools and digitisation solutions that were previously only available to large restaurant chains. 

“This democratisation of technology can empower small to medium-sized businesses to compete, thrive, and overcome labour shortages and rising food costs in a way that was previously out of reach,” adds Singh.

Capital utilisation

Peckish says it will use the proceeds to expand its operations and make an impact on the restaurant industry. The money will help expand their client base, create new services, and improve their AI algorithms.

Singh says, “Antler’s investment is a tremendous vote of confidence in our vision and the potential impact of Peckish. We are excited to partner with Antler and leverage their expertise to propel our growth and bring Peckish to restaurants in Amsterdam and the world.”

The next step for Peckish will be to actively work with restaurant managers and owners to improve their platform and address certain pain areas. Peckish seeks to consistently improve its service and provide more value to its clients by collaborating closely with the sector.