DabbaDrop

Idea

Introduction

Founded by neighbours Anshu and Renee, DabbaDrop is on a mission to change the way Britain does takeaway. Using an advanced subscription model, we coordinate and deliver plant-based takeaways to hundreds of households every week, reducing waste and eliminating grease guilt.

Our inspiration is the famous DabbaWala system from Anshu’s hometown, Mumbai, with reusable stainless steel packaging, wholesome food and zero-emission deliveries.

From humble beginnings in a home kitchen, DabbaDrop has grown in popularity over recent years. We now have a fully-serviced, commercial kitchen to support production, a network of cycle couriers and a fulfilment team helping us cover our existing geographies. But we want to do more. With just 1/5th of London currently serviced, and over 2000 people on our waiting list, we’re ready to grow into new locations in London and beyond. This funding round will be used to support expansion of our operations into new territories, help invest in infrastructure and support at HQ.

Substantial accomplishments to date

· >300% revenue growth in the last 2 years*
· Serving hundreds of customers across London each week
· LTV around £1000 and an average 14 month retention*
· Plant-based, minimal waste and emission-free delivery
· Marie Claire Sustainability Awards winner 2021
· As featured in Vogue, TimeOut, The Guardian, Courier and Evening Standard
· Built a community of over 18,000 DabbaDroppers
· Delivered over 50,000 dabbas to date
· Grown our team to over 10 members
· Collectively saved over 200,000 of plastic containers from ending up in landfill

*Based on unaudited accounts. Growth is from 31 March 2020 to 31 March 2022.

Monetisation strategy

DabbaDrop uses an advanced subscription model, so nothing is a surprise. We order the right amount of ingredients, for the right amount of customers. We can match our production needs & labour costs with demand & sales, therefore we can manage our costs incredibly closely. This is a win for our investors, but also for our customers, knowing their food is freshly prepared with minimal waste, delivered emission-free.

This subscription model gives us clear viability of sales for the coming weeks and we can accurately monitor geographic demand, sales growth & any potential churn (currently very low at 4.5%)

Our plan is to create more flexibility within our existing model; we currently deliver on a Thursday and Friday, we would like to extend this to 5 days/week and we want to explore other regional cuisines and flavours. Crucially, we have over 2000 on our waiting list for new locations, therefore our near-term strategy is to onboard as many as possible in a deliberate London-wide roll out.

Use of proceeds

In order to responsibly, sustainably expand, it's important we take on investment. We don't want to let our customers down, therefore we believe spending money to support our expansion across London is absolutely the right thing to do. We'll be investing into our head office, with key hires in operations, food development and marketing to help ensure process is as easy as possible for customers.

We're investing in our kitchen to expand both our team and production capacity, increasing deliveries to 5 days/week. In addition to this investment, we want to support each regional roll-out with sufficient marketing and advertising to ensure each one is a success. To date, c. 50% of all DaddaDrop business has been referrals, scaling to over 1000 subscribers this way. We appreciate we can't do this forever, therefore raising awareness that there's a better takeaway option available is crucial to our ongoing growth and success.

40% - Marketing and Growth
40% - Operations and infrastructure
20% - Team and HR