Japanese opens food supply company in Vietnam, raises nearly 8 million USD

Kamereo, a Japanese-founded B2B food delivery platform in Vietnam, has just raised $7.8 million to expand its business.

Kamereo staff check product quality in the growing area (Photo: DNCCC).

Kamereo, a startup that provides food to customers such as Pizza 4P's, Family Mart, Park Hyatt, El Gaucho... After 6 years of establishment, Kamereo has raised about 15 million USD. This round of capital calling has the participation of many investors from Japan such as Sumitomo Corporation, SMBC Venture Capital Co, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co... and some individual investors. Sharing with Tuoi Tre Online about the recent capital calling round, Mr. Taku Tanaka, CEO of Kamereo, said that he had built relationships with investors 1-2 years ago, giving them enough time to learn about the Vietnamese market as well as the company's business model. They came to Vietnam, met the team directly, visited the operations and witnessed the development of Kamereo. Before this series B round, startup Kamereo raised 2.1 million USD in a bridge round in October 2023. Vietnam’s food market is estimated to be worth around $100 billion with an annual growth rate of more than 5%. However, unlike Japan or the US, where wholesalers and agricultural cooperatives dominate the supply chain, the Vietnamese market still relies on small private distributors. Kamereo CEO believes that they have the opportunity to become a major player in the industry as there is no clear leader in the market. However, Kamereo still faces many challenges such as capital, logistics, operations and business growth.

"Most of these challenges depend on how we build the company. We will continue to develop the business with the Kaizen spirit at its core," said Mr. Taku. According to Kamereo, the capital raised this time will be used to expand its operations across Vietnam, recruit personnel, deploy new services such as the marketplace model and strengthen the product portfolio. Since December 2024, Kamereo has officially expanded its operations to Hanoi, in addition to its main market in Ho Chi Minh City. To support this strategy, the company has built a daily cold transport system connecting the North and the South, and is preparing to set up logistics and sales centers in the Central region. Mr. Hiroki Takeno, CEO and head of the retail division of Sumitomo Corporation, said that Sumitomo will cooperate with Kamereo through the Fujimart retail chain that Sumitomo is operating in Hanoi, to support this startup in expanding its business. At the same time, Kamereo will develop a B2B online platform. Accordingly, suppliers can store goods at Kamereo's warehouse system. The company takes care of all sales, delivery and payment collection steps. Currently, Kamereo has applied this model when cooperating with Gyomu Japan, the operator of Gyomu Super in Vietnam. Accordingly, Gyomu Japan listed about 450 of their products on KAMEREO's platform, meeting the diverse needs of the HORECA customer segment (hotels, restaurants, cafes). Kamereo was founded in 2018 by Mr. Taku Tanaka, a Japanese businessman born in 1989, after he left the position of Pizza 4P's operations director. Mr. Taku studied in the US and worked in the financial industry before traveling around Southeast Asia and choosing to start a new journey in Vietnam. Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguoi-nhat-mo-cong-ty-cung-cap-thuc-pham-o-viet-nam-huy-dong-gan-8-trieu-usd-20241209055617489.htm