Honours
In their own words
“We are incredibly excited to have the support of our investors from the United Arab Emirates, who share our vision of redefining the food delivery experience.”
The story
Umair Khalid came to Kitchenara from delivery operations. He worked on supply-chain growth at Careem and held logistics and operations roles at HungerStation. In 2020 he studied for a postgraduate diploma in strategic management and leadership at Magna Carta College, and in 2021 he took part in Y Combinator's Startup School. In October 2021 he co-founded Big Chefs and became its CEO, a role he held until July 2023. In May 2023, two months before leaving Big Chefs, he co-founded Kitchenara with Suhaib Nadeem. Kitchenara is a video-first commerce app, starting with food discovery. Users discover restaurants, dishes and offers through short-form creator videos, then visit, dine in or pick up, and Kitchenara helps restaurants turn creator content into measurable footfall and sales. It does not do delivery; food is the entry point to a broader video-commerce super app. In March 2024 the company announced SAR1.425 million ($380,000) in investment from angel investors in the UAE, which it said would go towards expanding its operations, technology and market reach.
By the numbers
Career
On Founding MENA
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