Dark kitchens (also known as ghost kitchens, cloud kitchens, or virtual kitchens) are often criticized for their food quality. sizlThis is a Chicago-based chef delivery service that tries to change that view by delivering meals made from fresh ingredients on a tablet for about 30 minutes.
The company announced its most recent $3.5 million seed round on Tuesday and received a $12 million currency valuation.
Unlike typical dark kitchens, these are shared spaces for various restaurants, Sizl says, running its own kitchen with a group of Ukrainian chefs and local culinary talent in Chicago, who prepare food. It also has its own delivery courier, and even has a mobile app where you can win rewards.
Since dark kitchens usually don’t have traditional dining space and focus only on providing takeaway orders, this can lead to inconsistent food quality and freshness.
The key selling point for SIZL’s target audience, that healthy customers seeking to bite quickly, is the service offering “fresh ingredients,” co-founder and COO Anastasia Kalinkina told TechCrunch.
SIZL claims it provides local suppliers of meat and production from Greensys, an organic farm in central Illinois. However, the company admitted to working with large distributors such as U.S. Food and Sysco, although it emphasizes that most of its ingredients come from local sources.
Additionally, many ghost kitchens offer a variety of food, but lack specialization. SIZL focuses primarily on Eastern European cuisine, which can help distinguish it from local restaurants.
SIZL’s menu includes only 60 items at a time, from dishes like chicken Kiev and Pierogies to daily meals like grilled cheese and pasta meat sauce. SIZL even incorporates Kalinkina’s family recipes, including her grandmother’s Borscht and Syrniki.
SIZL founders Kalinkina, Alex Kolesnikov (CEO), Nick Delitski and Kyrylo Kupin (CMO) were originally from Ukraine and had previous experience in building dark kitchen chains. They built it before Local kitchenKolesnikov pointed out that the scale of annual revenue has expanded to $46 million.
Another negative association with Dark Kitchen is that they rely on third-party delivery platforms, saturated Uber Eats, Doordash and Grubhub apps, and virtual brands that often mimic each other.
Although SIZL is also available on these applications, it uses game mechanics to attract customers compared to its own mobile applications. Whenever a customer orders or logs into the app, they collect theme cards that can be used to unlock rewards. SIZL also has in-app currency (Mojis) and mini-games. Additionally, SIZL offers a 3% cashback on all orders.
The most recent round is the Yellow Rocks participated by Kinetik! And several angel investors including Mike Alexandrovski co-founded Delight ofertion Startup Borzo.
The funding will be used to open up to four additional kitchens in Chicago this year, adding to its two existing locations. It is also exploring expansion to the Boston, Charlotte and the San Francisco Bay area.
SIZL said it already plans to have a series scheduled later this year or early 2026.
