DIGITALISING THE CATERING INDUSTRY IN THE NEW NORMAL

Business Today speaks to Alessandro Voltolini, chief executive officer and co-founder of SmartBite on the startup’s efforts to digitalise the catering industry in KL as business move into a new era.

- POOVENRAJ KANAGARAJ

As companies enter into a new normal, many hope to create a safer environment as well as happier employees. What was once a norm of employees heading out for lunch has since seen changes in stages due to the circumstances created by the Covid-19 outbreak. Despite the work-from-home trend taking charge in the last couple of months, many industries still require getting their employees back to the office.

“Companies need to have a new approach to employee meals in the Covid-19 era where safe access to meals at work is a necessity, being a matter of health, risk reduction, and efficient operations,” says Alessandro Voltolini, chief executive officer and co-founder of SmartBite.

“Our key vision is to digitalise the catering industry. A restaurant on its own can’t really do this on their own but working with SmartBite, they are part of a bigger platform,” says Voltolini, who added that the platform serves as a tech company to offer caterers tech solutions.

The AI-powered food delivery startup has been in the market for three years and had decided to pivot last year from a B2C model to a B2B model and immediately saw a spike in growth which recorded a 20 percent average increase every month.