Kanpla, an Aarhus-based SaaS company focused on the contract catering industry, announced the completion of an €8 million Series A funding round, led by Dutch venture capital firm HenQ. The funding aims to support Kanpla’s expansion into the U.S. market and facilitate further growth across Europe. The global contract catering market, valued at around €285 billion, faces challenges such as food waste management and sustainability compliance.
Kanpla’s platform offers solutions designed to streamline operations and improve the customer experience for over 3,000 canteens across 10 countries. This new investment will help the company address the increasing demand for flexible catering services, particularly in hybrid work environments. Kanpla plans to utilize the funding to establish a presence in the U.S. in 2025 and to double its workforce in response to its growing operational needs.
However, the industry faces ongoing challenges such as reducing food waste, meeting ESG sustainability goals, and managing irregular customer flow. Kanpla’s digital platform addresses these challenges by enabling canteens to optimize operations and enhance the customer experience.
With only 28% of businesses requiring employees to work full-time from the office and educational institutions increasingly adopting hybrid models, the demand for flexibility in canteen services has never been higher.
“As the workplace culture has changed, we’ve noticed key challenges like increased amounts of food waste, excessive manual work, and disconnected systems. We believe software can be a significant enabler in overcoming these issues and aim to position ourselves as the global technology leader in contract catering, helping chefs worldwide save time and creating the best possible customer experience,” says Jonas Gøttler, COO & Co-Founder.
In less than two years, Kanpla has expanded its operations from Denmark to 10 countries across Europe, including Scandinavia, the UK, and Benelux.
Kanpla’s platform is now used by over 3,000 canteens in workplaces and educational institutions, allowing more than 250,000 users to view menus with CO2 emissions and nutritional information, make purchases, earn loyalty points, and provide feedback—all through the app, point-of-sale systems, or the web.
“We’ve seen tremendous demand for digital transformation across Europe’s contract catering sector. Our platform is helping caterers deliver more personalized experiences, better manage fluctuating foot traffic, and reduce food waste,” Peter Bæch, CEO & Co-Founder, says.
The U.S. represents a significant portion of the global contract catering industry, with an estimated market size of over $53 billion annually. As the largest region for catering services, North America is rife with opportunities for Kanpla to bring its proven solutions to new clients. The recent funding will, therefore, be utilized to bring Kanpla to the U.S. in 2025.
With a current team of 45, Kanpla also expects to double its workforce over the next year to support its growth ambitions.
“We’ve been excited to witness Kanpla’s success in scaling across multiple countries over the past 18 months. We’re really impressed by their progress which has made us wonder about all the other great things this team can achieve. This has inspired us to lead this round as we have immense confidence in Kanpla and their plans to enter the U.S. market,” said Jan Andriessen, Partner at HenQ.
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Read the orginal article: https://arcticstartup.com/kanpla-raises-e8m-series-a/
