ChefPrep bolsters potential overseas expansion with CoLab acquisition
ChefPrep is acquiring Melbourne-based Co-Lab Pantry to form ‘CoLab’ in a move that will bring together two of Australia’s top 100 innovators.
The cash and equity deal will pave the way for the company’s international expansion.
ChefPrep is the brainchild of Sydney’s Elle Curran and Josh Abulafia and is an online marketplace offering ready-made meals from premium restaurants.
Co-Lab Pantry is a Melbourne-based gourmet online store that offers a ‘virtual supermarket’ of ready-made cocktails and fridge and pantry items.
The merged business will offer over 1500 products from 150 restaurants around the country.
Sydney and Melbourne customers will be able to order from the state they are not based in and receive their order the next day. Other states will be added in coming weeks.
Co-Lab will be based in Sydney.
Co-Lab co-founders Natasha Buttigieg and Avin Chadee reached out to the ChefPrep founders when money was tight.
“The founders of Co-Lab reached out, and our philosophy has always been about collaborating and working together even with people that could be perceived as the competition,” Abulafia said.
“They were finding it difficult to raise capital largely because I think we had just raised, and it’s usually difficult for two companies in the same space in a market like Australia to raise at the same time.
“They didn’t have the capital to keep going, and they were looking to sell to another business, but they reached out to us first and they said they wanted to speak to us first. We quickly worked out that one plus one equals three with this deal, it’s not something we were looking for but it was so organic that it just made sense.”
Terms of the merger are undisclosed.
The merger gives the combined entity the fuel it needs to expand beyond Australia’s borders and with $6 million raised in 12 months, ChefPrep’s capital raise the company is well set financially.
ChefPrep currently has a customer base of around 35,000 all wanting fare from top chefs such as MasterChef pastry chef Anna Polyviou and The Great Australian Bake Off’s Jawin Rratchawong.
“ChefPrep and Co-Lab Pantry were both born out of a shared frustration with mass manufactured ready meals, so it’s only natural that we’ve come together to further our mission to bring incredible food to as many people as possible,” Curran said.
“This is all about unlocking all these opportunities that we kind of dreamt about when Ellie and I were first sitting down at the kitchen table thinking about what this business could be,” Abulafia said.
“Now we can start looking at the even further afield stuff that we didn’t think we’d ever have the opportunity to do.”
Irit Jackson, 24th August 2022
