ChefCoco

ChefCoco is a Berlin-based ready-to-eat meal provider that supplies corporate meal services and event catering. Employees at client companies select from a weekly rotating menu through the company's own app, where they can personalise their weekly selection, set health and taste preferences, or skip a meal; meals are cooked by Michelin-trained kitchen staff and delivered to the workplace in branded reusable containers that are collected and redelivered daily.

The company operates its own industrial-scale production kitchen in Berlin, described as one of the largest in the city, and uses a modular approach intended to expand production capacity. It positions its offering between traditional food delivery and meal kits, emphasising fresh preparation, weekly menu rotation informed by customer feedback, reusable zero-waste packaging and reduced food waste. Menu items span meat, fish, vegetarian and vegan dishes such as salads, pasta, bowls and curries. Alongside daily office lunch, ChefCoco also handles event catering in Berlin.

Founding story

The entity was incorporated in 2019 and originally pitched as an urban mobility aggregation business before founder Shaminder Dhillon, an Australian, pivoted it to food delivery, a switch initially aimed at COVID-19 lockdown demand. Heliad and the company's own site date the ChefCoco business to 2021, when it was founded in Berlin by culinary and business experts; an EU-Startups directory entry lists 2022.

Business model

ChefCoco sells meal services to companies for their employees, combining in-house production with its own delivery operation and a proprietary ordering application. Contracts are offered without long-term commitment, and a partnership approach that includes employer subsidisation of meals is used to raise employee ordering frequency. Vertical integration of a central production kitchen is presented as the source of both production cost advantages and bulk ingredient procurement discounts.

Revenue comes from meals sold to corporate customers and their employees, with meals listed at €7.99 each in an earlier consumer-facing description, plus event catering engagements.

Traction

Reported metrics include 100% customer retention, average employees ordering multiple times per week, becoming the leading corporate meal provider in Berlin over a six-month period, being on track for profitability in the coming months as of the Heliad announcement, and a doubling of subscribers in the first part of January 2023. Client references include GetYourGuide, described as running office lunch for more than 800 employees, and catering for a Stranger Things 5 event in Berlin.

Latest developments

Heliad AG announced leading a seven-figure Pre-Series A round, with existing investors including Atlantic FoodLabs, SB21 and Planetly founder Benedikt Franke joining. Company blog headlines reference catering for a Stranger Things 5 event in Berlin and servicing GetYourGuide's office lunch programme.