Darkish kitchens– additionally known as ghost kitchens, cloud kitchens, or digital kitchens– typically obtain criticism for his or her meals high quality. Sizl, a cook-to-order supply service based mostly in Chicago, seeks to vary this notion by delivering meals made with recent elements in round half-hour flat.
The corporate introduced its current $3.5 million seed spherical on Tuesday, at a $12 million post-money valuation.
Not like typical darkish kitchens, which function shared areas for varied eating places, Sizl says it runs its personal kitchens with a small group 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 will result in inconsistency within the meals high quality and freshness.
A key promoting level for Sizl’s audience, health-conscious prospects in search of a fast chunk, is that the service offers “recent elements,” co-founder and COO Anastasia Kalinkina advised TechCrunch.
Sizl claims it sources meat and produce from native suppliers, together with Greensys, an natural farm in central Illinois. Nevertheless, the corporate admits to additionally working with giant distributors like US Meals and Sysco, though it emphasizes that a good portion of its elements come from native sources.
Moreover, many ghost kitchens supply 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 objects 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 integrated 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 Local Kitchen, which Kolesnikov famous scaled to $46 million in annual income.
One other detrimental affiliation with darkish kitchens is that they depend on third-party supply platforms, saturating Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub apps with digital manufacturers which are typically copycats of one another.
Though Sizl can also be obtainable on these apps, it differentiates itself with its personal cell app that makes use of sport mechanics to interact prospects. Each time a buyer orders or logs in to the app, they accumulate 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 gives 3% money again on all orders.
The current spherical was led by Yellow Rocks!, with participation from Kinetik, and a number of other angel buyers, 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 yr, including to its two present areas. It’s additionally exploring growth into Boston, Charlotte, and the San Francisco Bay Space.
Sizl stated it already has a Collection A spherical deliberate for later this yr or early 2026.