People’s Champion Finalist: Grub Club

Start-up name: Grub Club
Founders: Olivia Sibony and Siddarth Vijayakumar
Started in: 2013
Based in: London
Business description: Online platform for pop-up restaurants

Shortlisted category:

Crowdfunded Business of the Year

The Grub Club story: 

Inspired by the people they dined with while travelling around the world, Olivia Sibony and Siddarth Vijayakumar wanted to create similarly meaningful experiences at home. Grub Club was born – a platform that allows chefs to host dinners for an evening in underused spaces including a disused underground carriage or St Pancras Clock Tower.

As well as giving diners the chance to eat with like-minded people in unique spaces, Grub Club provides up-and-coming chefs the opportunity to build a following and gives venues an additional revenue stream – everybody benefits. And with a star and ratings system, diners get the chance to play food critic for a night and chefs can grow their business and practice without the need for significant financial investment.

Grub Club claims to achieve 41% repeat customer bookings and over 60% chef repeat rate and is growing at around 15% every month with very little advertising spend. Taking a commission from every booking made, the company has so far doubled its revenue year-on-year.

Why Grub Club made our 60:

Celebrating food, people and interesting spaces, Grub Club is a truly unique proposition – and with a successful Crowdcube campaign seeing the business overfund its £250,000 target by 30%, it’s set to continue to expand its offering of unique dining experiences.

Where to find out more about Grub Club:

Website: www.grubclub.com
Twitter: twitter.com/Grub_Club
Facebook: facebook.com/grubclub1/