Darkish kitchens– additionally known as ghost kitchens, cloud kitchens, or digital kitchens– usually obtain criticism for his or her meals high quality. Sizl, a cook-to-order supply service primarily based in Chicago, seeks to vary this notion by delivering meals made with contemporary elements in round half-hour flat.
The corporate introduced its latest $3.5 million seed spherical on Tuesday, at a $12 million post-money valuation.
Not like typical darkish kitchens, which function shared areas for numerous eating places, Sizl says it runs its personal kitchens with a small crew of Ukrainian cooks and native culinary expertise from Chicago who put together the meals. It additionally has its personal supply couriers and even a cell app the place you may earn rewards.
Since darkish kitchens sometimes function with no conventional dine-in area and focus solely on delivering takeout orders, this could result in inconsistency within the meals high quality and freshness.
A key promoting level for Sizl’s audience, health-conscious clients on the lookout for a fast chew, is that the service offers “fresh ingredients,” co-founder and COO Anastasia Kalinkina informed TechCrunch.
Sizl claims it sources meat and produce from native suppliers, together with Greensys, an natural farm in central Illinois. Nonetheless, the corporate admits to additionally working with massive distributors like US Meals and Sysco, though it emphasizes that a good portion of its elements come from native sources.
Moreover, many ghost kitchens provide all kinds of meals however lack specialization. Sizl stands out by focusing primarily on Jap European delicacies, which may assist it set itself aside from native eateries.
Sizl’s menu consists of solely 60 gadgets at a time, starting from dishes like rooster kyiv and pierogies to on a regular basis meals like grilled cheese and spaghetti bolognese. Sizl has even included Kalinkina’s household recipes, together with her grandmother’s borscht and syrniki.
Sizl founders Kalinkina, Alex Kolesnikov (CEO), Nick Delitski, and Kyrylo Kupin (CMO) are initially from Ukraine and have prior expertise in constructing a darkish kitchen chain. They beforehand constructed Native Kitchen, which Kolesnikov famous scaled to $46 million in annual income.
One other unfavourable affiliation with darkish kitchens is that they depend on third-party supply platforms, saturating Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub apps with digital manufacturers which might be usually copycats of one another.
Though Sizl can also be out there on these apps, it differentiates itself with its personal cell app that makes use of recreation mechanics to interact clients. Each time a buyer orders or logs in to the app, they acquire themed playing cards that can be utilized to unlock rewards. Sizl additionally has an in-app foreign money (mojis) and mini video games. Moreover, Sizl provides 3% money again on all orders.
The latest spherical was led by Yellow Rocks!, with participation from Kinetik, and a number of other angel traders, together with Mike Alexandrovski, who co-founded supply startup Borzo.
The funding will go towards opening as much as 4 further kitchens in Chicago this 12 months, including to its two present places. It’s additionally exploring enlargement into Boston, Charlotte, and the San Francisco Bay Space.
Sizl mentioned it already has a Collection A spherical deliberate for later this 12 months or early 2026.
