NewcrestImage has become an investment partner in TiffinLabs, a Singapore-based food tech company that is expanding its new food delivery-focused virtual restaurant brands to the U.S. hospitality industry. With its investment, NewcrestImage becomes the second-largest shareholder in TiffinLabs.
“TiffinLabs offers hotels and restaurants a low cost, turn-key source of incremental revenue for post-pandemic recovery, while for us as investors, TiffinLabs represents a strategic opportunity for long-term growth,” explained Mital Patel, managing partner of NewcrestImage, who becomes a member of the TiffinLabs board of directors.
TiffinLabs, which has introduced numerous brands across Singapore and Malaysia since its founding in 2020, started its expansion into the United States in Dallas in 2021 and operates in multiple additional cities, including Chicago, Detroit, Knoxville, and Charlotte. By 2023, it expects to have 1,000 digital storefronts globally and to be operating in 30 U.S. cities.
Hotel properties currently using the concept operate under such brands as Hilton Garden Inn, Doubletree, Hyatt Place, AC Hotels, Courtyard, and Best Western. Hotel companies that are operating partners include HP Hotels, PM Hotel Group, Murphy Asset Management, Aimbridge Hospitality, and NewcrestImage.
To operate as a TiffinLabs site, a restaurant or hotel uses its existing brick-and-mortar kitchen to tap into the food delivery market.
“Our innovative culinary team, which includes representatives from around the world, then carefully develops one or more virtual restaurant brands for your property so you can offer great-tasting meals for both on-premise in-room dining and online ordering through exclusive delivery by services such as DoorDash, GrubHub, and Uber Eats,” said Shaun Smithson, co-founder and president of TiffinLabs US.
The new partnership continues NewcrestImage’s history. In recent years, the company has worked on concepts such as dual-brand properties; adaptive reuse of historic buildings; and the lifestyle hotel campus, which creates mixed-use neighborhoods.
