Afterpay co-founder injects $500,000 to help female-founded business FoodSt go national

It’s one of the lucky businesses that has benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a market that is growing by 300 per cent each year.

A co-founder of financial juggernaut Afterpay has injected $500,000 into female entrepreneur Lorraine Gnanadickam’s small business, called FoodSt, so she can take the service around Australia.

The mum-of-two runs FoodSt, a marketplace for cooks to sell their homemade meals, with the business supplying delivery and marketing support.

The northern beaches start up was originally launched in 2015 out of personal frustration, Mrs Gnanadickam said.

“I was working full time with two little kids and struggling to do a great job as a parent and struggling to do a great job as an employee and I was coming home after a long day’s work and ordering takeaway or buying meals two to three days a week,” she told news.com.au.

“I thought it wasn’t good enough and it wasn’t nutritious and I should be able to provide beautiful meals for my children.”

Smelling the beautiful Mexican cooking coming out of her neighbours house, gave her an idea to connect home cooks with time poor people like her, Mrs Gnanadickam said.

FoodSt was born – initially as a hot food service where customers could purchase meals from people’s homes – but it wasn’t growing enough.

Some of the food on offer from FoodSt. Picture: Supplied

In 2019, Mrs Gnanadickam introduced a frozen food line where people could buy a whole box of meals and it “hit a sweet spot with customers”.

A smorgasbord of foods are available through the service from Asian to Indian and Italian to Aussie, with a single meal costing $13 to $14, while a box requires a minimum order of $70.

“There’s Cambodian street foods, Indian, traditional lasagnes and even tuna mornay and very Australian type meals and because it’s home cooked and cooked to authentic home recipes, it’s the type of food you are not able to buy in restaurants,” she said.

There are 30 cooks on the books with more than 100 different meals on offer, with dumplings, goulash and beef rendang some of the most popular options. They cook meals in small batches weekly before they are picked up and brought to FoodSt’s headquarters.

The business has sold over 15,000 meals and has grown by 70 per cent per cent since this time last year.

People can order meals from cuisines across the world. Picture: Supplied

Currently, the business only operates in Sydney but the cash from Afterpay co-founder David Hancock is set to turbocharge FoodSt to go national.

The combo of a high growth market with a social impact made the investment very appealing, said Mr Hancock.

“Not only is the grocery replacement market growing by over 300 per cent year on year, FoodSt has a life changing impact on the lives of many people looking for flexible work options that they can do with a family from home,” he said.

Dumplings are one of the most popular options, although people can pick and choose different cuisines to put in their box. Picture: Supplied

Mrs Gnanadickam said they have a range of cooks working for them.

“There’s stay at home mums who want to spend more time with their children so it offers the ability to cook in their own time and earn extra income, retired chefs and people who are still cheffing – sometimes being a chef they don’t have the creative licence over what they want to cook … lots of caterers and this helps supplement their income as COVID has hit them hard, migrants who can’t speak very good English and we are able to provide a way for them to monetise their skills,” she said.

Home chefs include stay at home mums, immigrants, professional chefs and caterers. Picture: Supplied

A family could tuck into this and take a night off cooking. Picture: Supplied

There are plans to raise more private investment this year after a big 2020 – with FoodSt one of the few businesses to benefit from the pandemic.

“We were one of the lucky ones. Our business model matched the need during COVID with more people isolating and the demand for meals delivered contactless to your door was what everyone wanted and it’s still happening,” said Mrs Gnanadickam.

“We have a high repeat rate without subscriptions so we don’t tie people in, our customers are very loyal and buy from us regularly.”

Scaling up the business will include taking on more cooks, increasing the range of cuisines, setting up more hubs and expanding their warehouse space.