Since the global pandemic began in March, over 10,000 Indonesian nation-wide restaurants have been impacted as they decide to temporarily close the operation. Yet delivery apps like Kulina continue to seek record demand for serving the hungry folks on the city, both addressing at home or working in the office customer. The entire process, from ordering, preparing the meals, and delivering, is done online.
The startup initiated by Fajar Handika, closely called Andy (CEO Kulina) presents a ramp-up of people’s experience finding near food and beverages (FNB). As we know, conventionally, they tend to go outside their house or building into just doing it from their mobile application to order.
The story began when Andy seeing that the people of Jakarta who work in tall buildings, it is difficult to get food and takes a long time to find food. In contrast, they only have one hour of lunch break, so it is not sufficient to use the break time, which causes losses for the company.
“This is the reason why friends and I have a desire to establish a home cooking on-demand startup. I see this is both a problem and an opportunity. So in 2015, Kulina officially launched its service. At that moment, it immediately arose an idea to have a catering company with large-scale production. After being reviewed, it turns out that the production capacity is not as easy as it is thought. Because there is a lot to improve in the operation, which is the kitchen and the system,” explained Andy to Heaptalk (23/9).
As running with the marketplace business model, Kulina put some essential features as the minimum viable product, including online order, online payment, and tracking. Then tested to the market, which concentrates on people who work in offices with age above 25 and demographically is around the Jabodetabek region. More specific they target people who work in the office areas of South Jakarta and Central Jakarta, which can be classified as working millennials.
Positively, around a one-year operation, they welcomed Kulina’s first attempt, labeled as the early adopters. User acquisition is very high. Because the customers are satisfied and then invite their friends to try to find a condition where the demand is higher than production capacity.
On that point, we decide to scale up the production side by acquiring small food sellers with a typically small kitchen but serving a dine-in food. That’s the shifts of the core business side, from a conventional on-demand home cooking into a catering marketplace. On the vision side, Kulina started to put the message to help small merchants with a small kitchen to keep on production and serve their customers.
As for now, the startup that bags $700K from the Monk’s Hill Venture, according to Crunchbase, is recorded as the most exciting startup that shows rapid growth from the last three years.
“We have more than 4000 menu products and more than 150 active merchants that we have curated and filtered from the Kulina Merchant Management team. While for the transaction volume, we have hit more than 37,000 per month, which is dominated by South Jakarta and Central Jakarta,” said Andy.
Today, Kulina has several services; one of them is ‘Instant Delivery’. This service is currently the most awaited feature by the Community, where ordering and delivering are done on the same day. Unlike the previous Per-Order model, on this service, the shipping is also cheaper. While on the corporate level, Kulina also provides ‘Corporate Catering’ that focusing on serving the corporate lunch and gathering occasion demand, including the MICE (meeting, incentive, conference, and event). Andy explained why corporate should consider partnering with Kulina is because they can deliver a cost-efficient while the food quality is well-maintained.
The pandemic shifts
Entering a pandemic period like now, the customers are eagerly awaiting Kulina’s food services, specifically for middle-up families living near Jakarta, Bekasi, Depok, and Tangerang. It is due to the mobility limitation where people now feel more secured to do anything from home. People tend to order food, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner, instead of going outside, which may endanger themselves. Not to mention, many strict rules must be obeyed, such as maintaining distance, avoiding crowds, mandatory masks, and checking body temperature.
For working millennials affected by working from home (WFH) regulations, the existence of a ‘life-hack’ like this really helps them. Reportedly, that during the pandemic, the family menu package choices were the best-selling.
Meanwhile, on the side of Kulina partners, the kitchen managers classified as culinary MSMEs also experience shifts. Most of them are no longer able to serve customers to eat on the spot due to local restrictions on limiting social contact. Yet, they have shifted to helping to take away and distance delivery.
This was conveyed by the Economist of the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara. The analysis is based on his observations during the Covid-19 pandemic. The prospect of delivery services was very bright because the work from home concept implemented by the government actually triggered the demand for food delivery services.
“This is a very solution for MSMEs who want to start a culinary business. This cloud kitchen innovation is similar to factory sharing that applies to the industry. So, this is one of the manifestations of the sharing economy. The momentum is very fitting in the pandemic era because now many are working from home. The prospect of food delivery is very bright, “he said, as cited on Kompas.com on Tuesday (16/6/2020).
The concept of a cloud kitchen is similar to a food court in an offline market. Still, the difference is that it only serves food delivery. Through cloud kitchens, MSMEs remain the owners of the business but receive technical assistance and kitchen facilities from delivery service providers.
Bhima calculates that by joining the cloud kitchen concept, MSMEs who are just starting a business can save operational costs. It because the components of purchasing equipment and leasing a place can reach 70-80 percent of their total investment costs.
They become minimized risk because they are free from the burden of paying rent or building renovations. The responsibility of providing a dining room for those who want to eat food on the spot can serve consumers more quickly, and kitchen tech-infrastructure is ready.
Meanwhile, from Kulina’s side, to maintain the quality and taste of food products, Kulina’s Merchant Management team applies a rigorous curation process. So that crucial aspect such as cleanliness, presentation, and the taste is maintained. The curation process is carried out by sending photos of their kitchens and documenting the cooking process carried out.
“Kulina’s vision is “Feed the Nation”. So, we want to help from two sides of our user, namely merchants and consumers. Even though currently in a pandemic, we want to help as much as possible catering owners and also the customer to access hygiene and tasteful food so that we can mutually support each other,” close Andy.
