Kune Food CEO Robin Reecht announce the closure of the Kenya-based cloud kitchen

Kune Food founder and CEO Robin Reecht has announced the closure of the Kenya-based cloud kitchen barely a year after inception.

In a LinkedIn post, Robin Reecht cited lack of funds to sustain the company as main reason that has prompted the sudden closure.

“Sad day. Kune Food closed down today .since the beginning of the year, we sold more than 55,000 meals and acquired more than 6,000 individual customers and 100 corporate customers.

"But at $3 per meal, it just wasn’t enough to sustain our growth. With the current economic downturn and investment markets tightening up, we were unable to raise our next round. Coupled with rising food costs deteriorating our margins, we just couldn’t keep going,” said Robin.

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Kune Food was introduced in the country in December 2020 and it has gradually phased out after officially beginning its operation in the year 2021.

In June 2021, when Kune food raised $1 million in pre-seeding funding, it had hopes of being unique with its food delivery services in comparison with similar services in Kenya - but that dream gradually became invalid. In fact, over the last few months they began using third-party apps like Uber Eats, Glovo and Bolt Food to fulfill their orders

The shutdown of the company greatly comes with a negative impact. The company CEO has been forced to apologize to their customers, suppliers, and 90 employees some of whom were just hired recently.

“My third thought goes to suppliers, customers, bankers, and partners of any sort who supported us along our way. I’m sincerely sorry for the outcome many things could have been done differently, better certainly. The coming months will allow us to reflect on Kune’s failure, and I hope to share about it when the time will be right,” wrote Robin.

Until the indefinite closure, Kune was hoping to increase production capacity and expand its operations beyond Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. It had targeted a countrywide footprint by 2024.