I used to be a FoodCourt customer. At one point, every week, I would order the same Korean chicken burger as a treat from the consumer app of Y Combinator-backed CoKitchen. I always had reservations about the delivery times, but the food was good enough to make me stick around—at least until I moved outside the app’s delivery area.
In March, one of my favourite apps went offline after the kitchen staff behind the juicy burger went on strike over months of unpaid salaries. By April 19, all of FoodCourt had paused operations entirely. TechCabal reported the full sequence of events.
When the story was published, many readers reacted much as I did when I was reporting on it. FoodCourt’s food was undeniably good, and that quality helped it build a loyal customer base. In 2024, the company delivered more than one million meals and reached $4.3 million in annual recurring revenue. By most outward measures, business was thriving. Seeing it unravel within two years came as a surprise.
It is tempting to look at FoodCourt’s $1.7 million funding round, completed that same year, alongside its recurring revenue and conclude that none of this should have happened. It is equally tempting to frame the company’s pause as a failed funding story because a financial facility expected to close in April never materialised.
