i-Chef, a website that helps hospitality professionals find high quality recommended suppliers, has recently launched a Seedrs initiative to raise £55,000 so that it can develop a “foodie” community.
The website, which was launched in March 2014, stated that it connects catering and hospitality suppliers with professional establishments and foodie consumers through its online platform and exclusive events. i-Chef also shared that it uses social media and mobile applications to enable members rapid product promotion, communication along with acceptance of offers and sharing of ideas.
Suppliers join i-Chef to promote their services to potential customers. The website offers up a list of approved suppliers to professionals for their events. Foodies also join to see productions from suppliers and meet personalities in the food and drink industry. It was noted that i-Chef has adopted both a fixed membership fee and a ’freemium’ fee model. Features of the platform include exclusive behind the scenes restaurant access and artisan supplier events.
Founders of i-Chef, Anton Edelmann and David Dorricott, stated:
“We created i-Chef to help hospitality professionals find high quality recommended suppliers throughout the UK.”
During its first 18 months, i-Chef has successfully signed up over 5,000 members with 200 or more new members joining each week, from both the supplier and professional establishment communities. The website confirmed that there are already over 16,500 products being promoted on the website.
Funds from the campaign will go towards creating the foodie community, which help expand the business, but also the development of i-Chef App, which the company states would also provide an excellent opportunity for real time offers and incentives from our supplier base to be delivered directly to member’s mobile devices.
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