He recently closed an investment in Sweetfin (becoming the first shareholder), perhaps the company that most of all and first of all is linked to the poke bowl, the main dish of Hawaiian cuisine: a mix of rice, raw fish, fruit and vegetables , however, revisited in a Californian key. An operation that brings the group’s brands to 90 (present in Italy, Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom and France). And there are 80 new openings between Europe and the US in the next year. The total is 170 direct stores and a turnover of over 100 million euros. We are talking about Poke House, the company founded in Milan in 2018 by Matteo Pichi (CEO of the company), originally from Rome, 35, and Vittoria Zanetti, born in 1991, from Mantua. “I am an entrepreneur who loves innovation – Matteo said about himself – I started doing food delivery with Foodinho then in Glovo when it was practically unknown in Italy”.
Approccio Data Driven. Before being a food delivery company, Poke House is a foodtech company, in which the role of technology is central, underlined Matteo Pichi. The company has developed a multi-channel system (apps and payment systems) and “proprietary CRM software” (CRM is the customer relationship management program). It also uses a loyalty program that has a “data-driven approach”, a solution that has allowed the company to intercept “consumer trends and quickly adapt its offer in five different countries”. Poke House, Pichi added, “analyzes the data of third-party delivery platforms to understand how some variables (such as evaluations, preparation time and average order duration) impact on the business volumes of your store” .
The American market
“We enter the American market through the main door, and through an iconic brand loved by locals that has made Californian-inspired poke a real institution,” explained Pichi about the investment in Sweetfin. A strategy that envisages 40 new openings in the United States in the coming years between the West Coast (where Sweetfin is already present with 14 locations in Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County), Texas and Arizona, and through the sharing of know- technological how.
Sweetfin
Sweetfin, born in 2017 in Santa Monica, is the company that first imported Hawaiian poke to the United States. «It is a brand that has an incredible value in the United States. The investment? It was born from the madness of testing the ground with a company that was truly unattainable for us and that instead opened its doors for us “. A “crazy idea” that arises from this premise: «We realized that the global leader of poke bowls didn’t exist in the world». For Vittoria Zanetti, «the operation with Sweetfin has not only a strong strategic value for Poke House, but also an extraordinary symbolic value. The idea from which Poke House was born takes its inspiration during my travels between California and Florida and where I got to know and try Sweetfin already in 2017. It is a circle that closes “. Of the travels to the United States of Vittoria Zanetti, of how the idea of bringing a traditional Hawaiian dish all over the world and of the milestones (including all the rounds of 2020 and 2021) was born and also of how a company can survive and grow up during the Coronavirus emergency, we spoke with Matteo Pichi. Here’s what he told us.
How did you come up with the idea of focusing on poke, a traditional Hawaiian dish? “Poke House was born from the meeting between me and Vittoria, who had traveled to the United States, had known this product and had dreamed of bringing it to Italy. After the experience with Foodinho and Glovo I decided to embark on this adventure”.
The secret of Poke House’s success? “The startup approach: from innovation, to the way you are in the office, to the interaction with customers, to objectives. Poke House has reached this level because it has had a startup attitude. It means being brave, to experiment, to be quick to change. It means a central relationship with customers. Without this approach, we probably would not have reached the markets of six countries “.
Because we make a database of Italian startups
by Riccardo Luna
Why doesn’t Poke House want to be just a delivery? “Actually I can say that in Poke House we do two jobs, which go in parallel and which are necessary for each other. On the one hand there is the catering and the need to meet the expectations of the customers. there is the startup work: setting the priorities of the day to go fast and understand your customers first by making the most of technology. On the one hand the food and experience (so Vittoria), on the other the business (me) “.
You were born in 2018 and have gone through the pandemic emergency positioning yourself as one of the fastest growing food tech companies. “The Covid emergency has led people to stay at home. In this respect, we found ourselves in the opportunity to present and make our product appreciated immediately. Our business model, closely linked to technology, has adapted well to the our needs. Let me give two examples: we do not have huge premises or in super central locations and therefore we are able to keep rents low. On the food side we are able to control the supply chain thanks to technology. During the pandemic we then decided to acquire companies that were facing less good than us the Covid storm. I repeat, all this thanks to the possibility of control that we have thanks to technology “.
In 2020 and 2021, did you close two rounds of 5 and 20 million, respectively with Milano Investment Partners and then with Eulero and FG2 Capital? “We closed the first round in March 2020 in the middle of the Covid pandemic with Angelo Moratti’s Milano Investment Partners: for us it was a fundamental step. They had already invested in the lifestyle tech enable sector, one in which technology plays a central role as an accelerator growth. The second was important because it is a round that allowed us to close the gap with international competitors “.
Matteo, your favorite poke bowl? “The next we will do. The Sunny Salmon, however, is the one I am most fond of.”
Because we make a database of Italian startups
by Riccardo Luna