Episode 21 of the BIG5D Podcast features an interview with Kune Food Managing Director Kennedy Kamau.
Kune Food is an interesting company in many ways. The Kenyan food tech startup’s model sits at the intersection of cloud kitchens, delivery apps, virtual restaurants, home meal kits, and more.
Following a pilot in Nairobi earlier this year, Kune is now gearing up to fully roll out a concept where it prepares either hot, on-demand meals or packaged ready-to-heat-and-eat meals in its own cloud kitchen, which it calls a “factory”.
The company currently is in the process of building a new factory that can produce up to 80,000 meals/day. The full Nairobi rollout is slated for October-November. Initially, Kune will deliver only to area hotels.
No Deals with Aggregators
A key Kune selling point is value for money. So the company doesn’t plan to work with aggregators like Glovo or Uber Eats, which add costs for delivery, commission, and so on. This will create added pressure on Kune to spend money on marketing to build the brand and drive order traffic.
The company will also rely heavily on influencer marketing. To this end, Kune is teaming up with Nelson Aseka’s AIfluence influencer marketing agency.
The on-demand meals will be delivered via Kune’s owned and operated, exclusively female delivery operation. These drivers which Kune calls “captains” will deliver meals (“30 minutes on average”) using a fleet of 60 electric bikes.
The heat-and-eat meals will be sold through supermarket partnerships.
Kune Baby, Kune Pets
Kune is looking at new food concepts that fit with their Kenyan-inspired, wholesome and healthy positioning. Kune Green is likely next. Basically salads. And Kennedy said baby and pet food concepts are also on the roadmap.
Kune also plans to expand internationally. likely beginning next year in Nigeria. In the interview, we expressed some surprise that the company was committing to geographic expansion before it really knows how well the concept will do in Kenya.
Kennedy said the Kune team is confident in how it will perform in Kenya. He also said the company is following in its investors’ footprints by targeting Nigeria and South Africa.
Reflecting on the Controversy
Kune raised an impressive $1 million pre-seed round in June. That event, normally a celebration, turned into a public relations crisis for the company over comments made by its founder, Robin Reecht, a French national.
We asked Kennedy about the controversy, mainly to understand if it is having any lingering consequences for Kune as it prepares to launch the business.
The discussion of the controversy starts at around the 24.20 mark of the podcast. You can listen here.
The BIG5D Podcast · Episode 21: Kennedy Kamau, MD, Kune Food