OrderEAT, the platform that digitizes casinos, cafeterias and school cafeterias in Latin America, closed a US$2 million round led by Chile Ventures, with participation from Driven VC and Add Ventures, both Chilean, plus Seedstars and angel investors Sergio Fogel and Avedis Boudakian.
The company, founded by Uruguayan entrepreneurs based in Mexico, operates in more than 600 schools in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Peru, with more than 250,000 active students. Part of the capital will be used to reinforce the Chilean operation with more facilities and support close to dealers.
The thesis of Matías Craviotto, Juan Manuel Rodriguez and Luis Pedro Carrero, were aware of a specific problem: cash works as a filter of distrust in the school cafeteria. The family that does not know what the money will be spent on does not send it, and that sale never reaches the counter.
OrderEAT works like a closed-loop wallet: families load and pre-order from an app, students pay cashlessly, and the dealership manages menus, inventory, nutrition, and sales in real time.
Chile as a strategic market
OrderEAT already operates in more than 50 Chilean schools, including Colegio La Salle in Temuco, Colegio Alemán in Concepción, Colegio Pedro de Valdivia in Peñalolén and Providencia, St Margaret’s School in Concón, Pumahue Puerto Montt and The International School Nido de Águilas in Santiago.
“That the funds that know this market best have led the round says something simple: Chile is strategic for us. This capital is to install well, accompany well and grow in Chile,” stated Matías Craviotto.
OrderEAT’s regional network went from 400 to 600 schools in less than six months, and the goal is to reach one million active students in the next 18 months.
The impact in numbers
The case that best illustrates the value proposition is in Oak’s Leadership School in Mexico: 70% increase in sales, charging reduced from 2 minutes to 20 seconds per student and savings close to 4 hours of management per day after two years of operation.
“We had parents who were afraid: ‘What is my son going to consume, what if he loses the money?’. With OrderEAT they had no doubt: I deposit the deposit and I place the order from my app,” explained Andrea Molina, administrator of the school’s school cafeterias.
