{"id":50456,"date":"2017-10-09T17:09:27","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T16:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/?p=50456"},"modified":"2019-04-29T16:37:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T15:37:00","slug":"peoples-champion-finalist-2017-eatfirst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/peoples-champion-finalist-2017-eatfirst\/","title":{"rendered":"People\u2019s Champion finalist 2017: EatFirst"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Start-up name: <\/strong>EatFirst<br>\n<strong>Founder: <\/strong>Rahul Parekh and Benn Hodges<br>\n<strong>Started in: <\/strong>2014<br>\n<strong>Based in: <\/strong>London<br>\n<strong>Business description: <\/strong>Online-only restaurant delivering gourmet meals<\/p>\n<h3>Shortlisted categories:<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/product-business-of-the-year-2017-meet-the-finalists\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Retail Business of the Year<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/venture-funded-business-of-the-year-2017-meet-the-finalists\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Venture Funded Business of the Year<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/innovative-business-of-the-year-2017-meet-the-finalists\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Innovative Business of the Year<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>The EatFirst story:<\/h3>\n<p>Frustrated with the poor experience of takeaway food in the City, Rahul Parekh set out to start a food business that would create &ldquo;innovative food experiences&rdquo;, specially designed for delivery, to give time-poor people a real alternative for their weeknight dinners.<\/p>\n<p>To achieve this, Parekh partnered with award-winning chef Ben Hodges &ndash; who has years of experience running top-end Asian restaurants such as Roka in London &ndash; to launch EatFirst, a premium online restaurant that creates healthy, quality meals for delivery.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, the company&rsquo;s business model centred on delivering food within 10 minutes of the customer making an order but, despite hitting orders of 500 a day within a few months, Parekh soon realised that it would be too difficult to become profitable within their desired timeline.<\/p>\n<p>After a successful pivot, EatFirst now offers over 100 different dishes and has delivered more than 300,00 meals to date. Available from 11am to 10pm seven days a week, every item is freshly prepared daily in one of its kitchens and delivered chilled in compostable, eco-friendly packaging.<\/p>\n<p>Aiming to capitalise on the growing trend towards healthy living in the workplace, over 30% of the platform&rsquo;s revenue is generated from supplying directly to businesses &ndash; its fastest growing arm &ndash; including major customers WeWork, The National Lottery, JP Morgan, Citi Group, RBS and Goldman Sachs.<\/p>\n<p>Backed by more than $8m in funding, Parekh and Hodges have global ambitions for EatFirst and want it to become the&nbsp;&ldquo;largest online restaurant across the globe by 2018&rdquo;.<\/p>\n<h3>Why EatFirst made our shortlist:<\/h3>\n<p>The trend for healthy and convenient food shows no signs of abating, and EatFirst has carved out a comfortable slice of the premium end of the market with quality food delivered quickly.<\/p>\n<p>With growth on the horizon &ndash; the next month will see the company go nationwide with a dedicated store and retail operation &ndash; EatFirst is growing the&nbsp;UK restaurant sector and offering an additional option that is both high in quality and healthy.<\/p>\n<h3>Where to find out more about EatFirst:<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Website: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eatfirst.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">www.eatfirst.com<\/a><strong><br>\nTwitter:<\/strong>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EatFirst\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@EatFirst<\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Start-up name: EatFirst Founder: Rahul Parekh and Benn Hodges Started in: 2014 Based in: London Business description: Online-only restaurant delivering gourmet meals Shortlisted categories: Retail Business of the Year, Venture Funded Business of the Year, Innovative Business of the Year The EatFirst story: Frustrated with the poor experience of takeaway food in the City, Rahul [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63583,"featured_media":50719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finalists-2017"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n<title>People&#039;s Champion finalist 2017: EatFirst<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Could the London-based delivery platform for premium quality gourmet meals be your Startups Awards People\u2019 Champion 2017?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/peoples-champion-finalist-2017-eatfirst\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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