From April onwards VanChefs will restart and join forces with successful startups ChefPlaza and ToetToetFood. This will allow each brand to focus on its own speciality – VanChefs for unique business catering, ChefPlaza for dinners at home and ToetToetFood for foodtruck catering. Combined, the three startups dominate the Dutch space for catering marketplaces by a large margin.

Earlier this year Emma Veerhuis and Lisanne Buik, the founders of VanChefs, announced they would be leaving the company to focus on other ambitions. After short talks they concluded that their company would have the brightest future under the leadership of ChefPlaza’s founder Tim de Visser, currently situated at the ECE Campus.

Tim de Visser, founder of ChefPlaza: “Joining the three brands together is a good strategy. In the end, many talented chefs also run catering companies, drive foodtrucks and vice-versa. Given the market segment in which VanChefs had most of its customers it makes sense to continue operating it as a separate company and brand focused on unique catering for larger business events. With the three brands combined we offer the perfect solution for any catering need; whether it’s intimate dinners at home, outdoor festivals or conferences with over a thousand attendees.”  

VanChefs is one of the startups from the Rockstart accelerator. VanChefs launched its marketplace for chefs based on the AirBnB model in November 2013 and has so far connected over 50.000 guests with unique catering. ChefPlaza and ToetToetFood complement VanChefs’ portfolio of chefs and caterers outside of Amsterdam, ensuring nationwide coverage.

Emma and Lisanne won’t be involved in daily operations any more. Emma: “We believe in Tim, his team, and the added value of ChefPlaza and ToetToetFood for VanChefs, but when we decided to pursue other ambitions in January that decision was final.”

Aside from a good ‘exit’ opportunity for the VanChefs founders the restart is also good news for the over 100 chefs signed up with VanChefs and all those businesses looking for just that bit of extra, fun, or unique catering. As of last week, they can all rely on VanChefs again.

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