Peckwater Brands raises £15 million at £65 million valuation

Peckwater Brands has secured £15 million in a Series A seed funding round.

This follows a £3 million seed round in October 2021, bringing the firm’s post-money valuation to £65 million.

Founded in 2019, Peckwater Brands builds delivery only food brands, driven by data led customer insight, for restaurants in the UK. The orders are cooked and delivered from existing kitchens alongside their day-to-day operations.

The business operates a mix of licensed brands spanning several categories including chicken (Seoul Chikin, Flip the Bird, Wham Bam Wings, Katsu), burgers (Dukes, Proper Tasty) and has also run shared brands with partners such as Unilever, Buzzfeed, and Heinz.

Peckwater’s latest funding round was supported by Stonegate Group, a UK pub company with c.4,500 sites nationwide. Stonegate has taken a minority stake in Peckwater, for an undisclosed sum, having trialled Peckwater Brands in some of its pubs.

Other backers include SoftBank Investments (SBI), as well as follow on investment from Peckwater’s previous backers Fuel Ventures and Pembroke VCT.

Suzanne Baker, Commercial Director at Stonegate Group, says: “Peckwater Brands’ partnership with some of our pubs has demonstrated the company’s exciting potential.”

“As such, we were delighted to collaborate with them, participate in their latest funding round and offer support to this promising team. We look forward to working closely with Peckwater Brands in the coming years to ensure the company's continued success.”

The Series A funding will be used to develop the firm’s technology, including machine learning generated menus and operations performance improvements.

Peckwater Brands also plans to use its investment to accelerate its expansion, with its UK team planning to take the xompany from operating in 150+ sites to being the largest kitchen network in the UK.  

Plans are also afoot to level up its international operations.

This will involve the development of its US division, which was launched in Miami in early 2022, as well as expanding further into Europe, with confirmed sites in France and Belgium due to launch in the coming months.

As part of the investment, Co-founder Sam Martin will become Peckwater Brands’ CEO, with Co-founder Leo Bradshaw, taking up the position of Executive Chair.

Bradshaw says: “The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the need for disruption within the hospitality sector. And Peckwater Brands has done just that.”

“Our innovative use of technology, combined with our expert knowledge of brand management and hospitality has transformed the way restaurants, bars - essentially any venue with a kitchen - approaches branding and customer reach.”

“Our success speaks for itself. From enabling our partners to greatly improve their operations and monthly turnover, to transforming the way the hospitality sector considers franchises, we have demonstrated the true potential of virtual brands.”

“This latest investment will enable us to build upon our existing efforts and accelerate our expansion.”