Sizl raises $3.5M to expand its cook-to-order food delivery service

Dark kitchens – it is also referred to as ghost kitchens, cloud kitchens or virtual kitchens – often receives cash for the quality of their food. Sizl, a cooking delivery service to the request in Chicago, seeks to change this perception by providing meals made of new ingredients in about 30 flat minutes.

The company announced a seed tour of $ 3.5 million on Tuesday, with a rate of $ 12 million after money.

Unlike the typical dark kitchens, which act as common spaces for different restaurants, Sizl says it runs its own kitchens with a small team of Ukrainian chefs and local cooking talent from Chicago who are preparing food. It also has its own delivery sponsors and even a mobile application where you can earn bonuses.

Since the dark kitchens usually work without traditional food space and focus only on applying to eating abroad, this may lead to the lack of consistency in the quality and maturity of food.

Participant founder, co -founder and founder of Coo Anastasia Kalinkina told Techcrunch, a major selling point for the target audience for Sizl, clients looking for health looking for a quick bite, that the service provides “new components”, a co -founder and founder of Coo Anastasia Kalinkina.

Sizl claims that the sources of meat and products are local suppliers, including Greensys, an organic farm in the center of Illinois. However, the company also recognizes working with large distributors such as the United States of Food and SYSCO, although it confirms that a large part of its components comes from local sources.

In addition, many ghost kitchens offer a wide range of foods but lack a specialty. Sizl highlights by focusing mainly on the European eastern cuisine, which can help it to place itself from local restaurants.

Sizl menu includes only 60 elements at one time, ranging from dishes such as Kyiv and Pierogies to daily meals such as grilled cheese and spaghetti Boloniz. Sizl even combined the recipes of the Kalinkina family, including her grandmother Borscht and Syraniki.

The founders of Sizl Kalinkina, Alex Kolesnikov (CEO), Nick Delightsky and Kyrylo Kupin (CMO) are originally from Ukraine and have previous experience in building a dark kitchen chain. They previously built the local cuisine, which Kulsnikov noticed to $ 46 million of annual revenue.

There is another negative connection with dark kitchens, which is that it depends on the third -party delivery platforms, and the Uber, DooDash and Grubhub applications with virtual brands are often copies of each other.

Although Sizl is also available on these applications, it distinguishes itself with its mobile phone application that uses the game mechanics to involve customers. Every time the customer requests or log in to the application, they collect cards with topics that can be used to cancel the rewards insurance. Sizl also has a inside app (Mojis) and Mini Games. In addition, Sizl offers 3 % cash on all requests.

The last round was led by Yellow Rocks! , With the participation of Kinetik, and many owners investors, including Mike Alexandrovski, who co -founded Borzo.

The financing will go to open up to four additional kitchens in Chicago this year, adding to his current duct. It also explores the expansion of Boston and Charlot and the San Francisco Bay area.

Sizl said that it has already had a round of a series A to be planned later this year or early 2026.