Spanish FoodTech start-up Burger Index raises $1.3m to drive expansion in GCC

The funding round was led by Cairo-based venture capital company Flat6Labs

Wassim Berro and Maurice Karam, co-founders of Burger Index. Photo: Burger Index

Burger Index, a food technology start-up based in Spain, raised $1.3 million in a seed-funding round led by Cairo-based venture capital company Flat6Labs to expand in the GCC.

Flat6Labs accelerated the start-up through its Ignite programme, an initiative held in collaboration with DisruptAD, the venture capital platform of Abu Dhabi's holding company ADQ.

The funding round also included F Capital, a regional growth accelerator, and Cosmin Manea, founding partner at Instashop, Burger Index said on Tuesday.

Founded in 2022, Burger Index provides food and beverage data analytics for restaurants, cloud kitchens, food brands and distributors, enabling companies to track everything that happens in the market in real time.

The start-up helps F&B businesses go to market faster by providing them with all the available data in any market and “minimises the risk of every decision”, it said.

“Without data analytics, we wouldn't be able to do anything any more,” said Wassim Berro, founder and chief executive of Burger Index.

“It's not a luxury, it's a necessity. You have to have it and if you don’t, you’re going to fall behind your competition.”

The start-up's clients include brands such as McDonald’s, Nestle, Reef Technology, Allo Beirut and Majid Al Futtaim.

“They use Burger Index to answer key questions like where should I open my next location? What shall I price my smash burger? What are the key take outs from my reviews? What salmon poke promotions are active right now? All industries need these kinds of actionable insights in real time,” Mr Berro said.

The global FoodTech industry is projected to reach $342.5 billion by 2027, from $220.3 billion in 2019, according to Emergen Research.

It is being driven by the growth of advanced technology in the food industry, with innovations in robotics, processing techniques and data technology creating new opportunities, the report said.

Burger Index is currently available in seven countries across Europe and the GCC.

The company said it will use the funding to expand its team and data coverage to include digital grocery services and supermarkets.

“Burger Index finds itself at the intersection of three exploding markets — data analytics, location-based services and restaurant tech, which is projected to reach $342 billion by 2027,” said Ryaan Sharif, general manager at Flat6Labs UAE.

“Our Ignite programme supercharged the company’s expansion outside of Spain, allowing it to set up operations in the GCC, and now, with our leadership of its round, the founding team can scale [up] globally.”

Flat6Labs, which manages several seed funds, with total assets under management of more than $85 million, provides investment ticket sizes ranging from $50,000 to $500,000 to start-ups.

“The F&B industry is highly competitive and moves extremely fast,” said Hisham Samawi, chief executive at F Capital.

“But collecting data in the F&B industry has always been a very manual process, which leads to business decisions on new products, pricing, promotions and locations taking weeks and months to action because the industry is very data-dark. Tools like Burger Index help businesses go to market faster.”