UK: Chef marketplace yhangry is expanding into the short-term rental segment by announcing partnerships with a number of UK-based property management companies.
Founded in 2019 and backed by Y Combinator, the startup helps customers to book private chefs to come and cook for any occasion, such as birthdays, hen parties or weekly meal preparations. yhangry currently works with more than 600 chefs across the UK.
Having launched its first website in December 2019, just before the Covid-19 pandemic, yhangry pivoted to virtual cooking classes and meal prep delivery from chefs’ homes, and in November 2020, co-founders Siddhi Mittal and Heinin Zhang pitched in the BBC’s Dragons’ Den TV programme. Despite receiving offers from two ‘Dragons’ and securing a £100,000 deal on screen, the co-founders decided to walk away from the deal in private and instead raised £1.1 million in funding from a round of undisclosed investors.
yhangry recently announced partnerships with the following property management companies in the UK:
- GuestReady: yhangry will be the official personal chef partner for GuestReady in the UK, so guests can add a yhangry chef for a personalised dining experience.
- Luxury Cottages: Luxury Cottages currently represents over 350 luxury rental properties across the United Kingdom.
- Birch Stays: Manchester-based Birch Stays already sets out to create authentic holiday experiences by offering bespoke packages, activities and an affordable and simple level of service at its holiday homes, which it will build on in partnership with yhangry.
- Bloom Stays: Together with yhangry, Bloom Stays will offer private chef services at its holiday cottages in Kent and Sussex.
- Landed Houses: Specialising in listing large country houses to rent for parties and weddings, Landed Houses will work with yhangry to offer private chef services for large house rentals.
In addition, the startup has partnered with its first short-term rental trade association – The Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers [ASSC] – which has over 1,700 members and supports tens of thousands of self-catering properties across Scotland.
yhangry expects to unveil a further five partnerships in the near future.
Mittal will be pitching the yhangry brand at the upcoming second STRz Summit in a ‘Startup X Ray’ session. The Summit will take place in London on Tuesday 5 November at Bankside Hotel Autograph Collection – book your tickets now at this link.
