The Philippines restaurant industry is a massive $16 billion opportunity and is growing fast. Two large segments exist in the market: large quick service chained restaurants, which account for roughly 60% of annual restaurant sales, and independent eateries, which encompass the remaining 40%. While the large franchise chains, consisting of global players like McDonald's and Burger King along with home-grown champions like Jolibee and Mang Inasal, benefit from better economies of scale, streamlined supply chains, and greater financial access, independent restaurants struggle with structural disadvantages that limit their ability to compete and thrive. Suffering from fragmented supply chains, a lack of pricing power, and elevated food costs due to layers of middlemen, these establishments bear the brunt of a lopsided, inefficient food system.
Foodoo is looking to rewrite the rules. The B2B food service solution links dry good suppliers with non-chained restaurants on a seamless, single-source solution, aggregating customer demand to level the playing field for independent restaurants across the country.
Foodoo enables restaurants with direct supplier access on its mobile platform, employing a distributed logistics model that leverages a “master agent” network of larger independent restaurants to act as hubs, distributing goods to smaller “satellite” restaurants nearby in order to lower input costs. More simply put, small orders placed by individual restaurant operators are aggregated into fewer, larger orders so that all customers can obtain purchasing economies of scale. We believe that this approach will create a powerful network effect by helping to slash delivery costs while making the procurement experience much more convenient. For Foodoo, this indirect distribution strategy also works as a key lever for compressing customer acquisition costs by offsetting new restaurant onboarding to the master agents.
On the supplier front, Foodoo delivers value by helping to unlock a completely new customer segment of small restaurants that larger food suppliers cannot typically service due to fragmentation and minimum order quantity requirements. Eventually, suppliers will also be able to acquire data insights on restaurant purchasing behavior through Foodoo, and run promotions and campaigns targeting prospective customers.
Beyond logistics, Foodoo aspires to embed financial services into its system in the form of credit and flexible terms based on real purchasing behavior. No collateral, no bureaucratic red tape—just working capital that actually works for small businesses.
Building this kind of business requires deep domain expertise and an ability to execute at scale. Co-founders Dan Marogy and Monchet Ibarra know the industry inside and out, with Dan having previously led Foodpanda Philippines, and Monchet being a key deputy in his former role as Foodpanda Philippines’ Head of Supply Chain and Operations, with previous experience in e-commerce strategy and supplier analytics with Shopee and Philippine Seven Corporation. The pair understand how to operate and develop logistics-heavy, high-frequency business, and we believe that they have the right mix of operational and strategic chops to drive Foodoo into a category-defining company.
Similar models to Foodoo are already being pioneered in other countries with similar demographics and supply chain pain points, and clear winners are now emerging. Cayena, the Brazilian startup looking to inject technology into Latin America’s massive B2B food procurement space, announced late last year a $55 million fundraising round led by Bicycle Capital, the investment firm founded by former SoftBank Group Corp. executives including Marcelo Claure. The business currently operates in 100 cities across Brazil and was estimated to have achieved $200 million in sales in 2024.
Closer to home is Kamareo, a Series B stage startup operating out of Vietnam. Kamareo positions itself as a B2B food sourcing platform for fresh produce, operating its own refrigerated last-mile delivery network for fulfillment and even a consumer retail brand selling ready-to-eat salads. Bagging $7.8 million last December, Kamareo will accelerate its operations across multiple cities in Vietnam, strengthen its tech offerings, and branch out into marketplace operations and direct imports.
What these competitors have achieved in their respective countries captured our imagination for how B2B F&B supply chains in the Philippines can grow in resilience, efficiency, and equity with the right tech-enabled approach. The nuances in these models—with Cayena offering financing to its customers to alleviate short-term cash-crunch pains, and with Kamareo investing in refrigeration for last-mile given their fresh product mix—speaks to the need to strategize deliberately for the market the business is operating in.
Our hope is that Foodoo will be able to capitalize on the team’s proven ability to execute, and their existing momentum to tackle an often neglected but large and fast-growing segment of the vast food service market in the Philippines. With the country’s growing middle class and increased urbanization fuelling restaurant expansion, along with digital transformation initiatives occurring across the food service industry, we feel compelled to bet on businesses like Foodoo that can serve as a foundational rail bridging traditional businesses with the new economy.
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Written by Henry Chong at Kaya Founders, illustration by Patrice Lecaros
