UAE-based food-tech startup funch. has successfully raised $500,000 to expand its AI-native lunch subscription service across the region. Positioned as a smart solution for busy professionals and teams, funch. aims to revolutionize the office lunch experience by eliminating decision fatigue, order management, and delivery fees. The pre-seed funding round saw participation from regional angel investors and strategic partners, including AngelSpark, Swvl Co-founder Mostafa Kandil, Mahesh Murthy, Tushar F., and Rutvik Deepak, alongside support from in5 Dubai.
Leveraging AI for Lunch Infrastructure
At its core, funch. is building a scalable “lunch infrastructure” rather than simply a food delivery service. The platform uses artificial intelligence to manage customer preferences, optimize menus, and streamline logistics. This focus on automation and efficiency has allowed the startup to offer a premium, fresh meal subscription for a fixed daily price of AED 19, which includes daily delivery. The model is designed for maximum convenience: users set their preferences once, and lunch “just shows up.”
Proving Unit Economics in Stealth Mode
Prior to the public funding announcement, funch. operated in stealth mode, where it demonstrated its operational efficiency and market fit. During this phase, the company successfully delivered over 75,000 meals with an impressive 99.8% accuracy rate. This operational proof point highlights the robustness of their AI-powered logistics and their ability to execute at scale, a critical factor for investors in the competitive food-tech and last-mile delivery sectors.
Strategic Investment Backing Regional Ambition
The investor pool is a mix of specialized angel groups and notable figures from the MENA tech ecosystem. The participation of AngelSpark, a Dubai-based angel community, signals strong belief from active regional investors. Furthermore, the backing of Mostafa Kandil, the Co-founder and CEO of the prominent mass transit platform Swvl, adds significant strategic value, pointing to the potential for disruptive logistics models in adjacent industries. This capital injection will be used to enhance the AI platform, expand the team, and potentially scale to new territories within the UAE and the wider MENA region.
About funch.
funch. is a UAE-based food-tech startup, founded in 2025 and headquartered in Al Sufouh 1, Dubai. The company provides the UAE’s first AI-native daily lunch subscription service, focusing on delivering fresh, home-style meals to offices with a simplified, no-ordering model. The service is built to optimize the lunch break for busy professionals by removing the complexities and costs associated with traditional food delivery.
Source: funch.
