Like big tech giants including Apple, Facebook, and PayPal, German food delivery disruptor Delivery Hero has also become a founder’s factory. Numerous former employees have ventured into entrepreneurship, establishing companies such as Payrails, a FinOps platform. Now, another Delivery Hero alumnus is in the news for their tech startup Milano Vice, a Berlin-based food tech company, boasting to be the world’s first digitally-driven, delivery-centric pizza restaurant concept.
Today, Milano Vice has raised $9 million in a Series A round. The funding round was led by New York-based Coefficient Capital, with participation from True, Geschwister Oetker, and Speedinvest known for investing in pre-seed, Seed, and early-stage tech startups across Europe like HomeCooks and Flow48.
Milano Vice also received investments from other notable food technology and delivery entrepreneurs, including Ole Strohschnieder, Co-Founder of Just Spices; David Brunier, Co-Founder of Flash Coffee; Christian Gaiser, Co-Founder of Numa and founding investor Fabian Wittleben CG Partners.
The Berlin-based startup will use the latest investment to scale operations and expand its new and innovative restaurant business model across Germany and internationally.
The virtual pizza chain!
Milano Vice is Germany’s first virtual pizza restaurant chain. Founded in Berlin in 2022 by Rudolf Donauer and Dennis Murselovic after working together at Delivery Hero. As a result of resource optimisation through increased utilisation of kitchens and staff, Milano Vice partners have experienced a tripled increase in sales.
AI to track the quality of pizza
Its proprietary technology uses artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision technology to track the quality of freshly prepared pizzas and make sure the product is meeting the company’s high standards. Recently, Milano Vice launched a new online ordering platform providing a direct-to-consumer experience for the consumer and will leverage gamification to drive loyalty.
Millennials and GenZ are the target audience for its lifestyle pizza brand. To date, Milano Vice has sold over 1 million pizzas in Germany, specifically across Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main and North Rhine-Westphalia. Currently, they have partnered with over 60 businesses in Germany. Its first pop-up physical location launched in October 2023 lets customers order whole pizzas and individual slices.
Rudolf Donauer, Co-Founder & CEO of Milano Vice, said, “We always wanted to create something that would have a positive impact on food entrepreneurs, and the work we’ve been doing with Milano Vice is in service of this vision. We are building the restaurant of the future with a pizza brand that has a best-in-class delivery system, tastes great, and also helps small food businesses and restaurants grow their income.”
Arpon Ray, Partner at Coefficient Capital, said, “We have been looking for innovative models in food delivery and were immediately impressed with the capital-efficient business model Rudolf and Dennis created. We think their focus on using proprietary technology will be a major differentiator, and their approach to brand building will resonate with today’s consumer.”
“The strong team of Milano Vice created a modern pizza brand that focuses on tasty pizza of high quality and with a culinary twist, as well as digitalising and optimising the daily business of many smaller restaurants and owner-led food joints. We are excited about the opportunity of bringing together happy customers and successful food entrepreneurs,” added Sven Wiszniewski, Investment Manager at Geschwister Oetker Beteiligungen KG.
Joe Seager-Dupuy, Director of VC at True, added, “The team at Milano Vice has built a unique and distinctive brand backed up by an innovative product and business model to become one of the top choices for pizza in Germany. This Series A is a testament to the momentum they have achieved with consumers and partners, and we are excited to see Milano Vice taken to the next level.”
