SideChef
SideChef is a recipe technology platform offering a consumer app with 18,000+ shoppable recipes integrated with Walmart grocery, alongside an enterprise platform providing AI-powered recipe generation and commerce solutions to CPG brands, kitchen appliance OEMs such as LG and V-ZUG, and food retailers.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2013
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What SideChef does
SideChef is a privately held recipe technology platform founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Jose, California. The company operates a dual consumer and enterprise business model: its consumer-facing mobile application delivers 18,000+ step-by-step recipes with integrated grocery shopping through Walmart, meal planning, pantry management, and dietary filtering, while its enterprise platform (Cooking Experience Platform, Cost-Per-Order campaigns, Shoppable Tech, Content Creation, SideChef Studio) provides white-label recipe and commerce solutions to CPG brands, kitchen appliance manufacturers, and food retailers. The company has raised approximately $7 million in disclosed venture funding across a Series A in 2018 ($1M) and a $6 million Series B in March 2023 led by LG Electronics with participation from Electrolux, V-ZUG, and other strategic appliance-sector investors.
The core technology stack combines a curated content library with AI capabilities and a shoppable commerce infrastructure. RecipeGen AI, launched in beta in August 2024, applies computer vision to convert photographs of dishes into instant step-by-step shoppable recipes, and is also offered to partners as a 'Powered by SideChef' capability. SideChef Studio is an enterprise generative AI tool for CPG recipe content creation, and a recommendation engine combines ingredient databases, user preferences, biometrics, and barcode scans for personalized nutrition. The platform is embedded in LG's ThinQ Recipe Hub, V-ZUG's V-Kitchen cooking hub, and Bacardi's Mixlab cocktail platform, extending SideChef's recipe content directly into smart appliance and beverage ecosystems.
SideChef monetizes through a diversified revenue mix including freemium consumer subscriptions, in-recipe shoppable advertising, sponsored CPG content, transaction-linked revenue from Walmart grocery integration, enterprise technology licensing (white-label and 'Powered by SideChef' arrangements), and performance-based Cost-Per-Order campaign fees. The company is led by Founder & CEO Kevin Yu and is structured as SideChef Inc., a California corporation. Reported customer segments include home cooks, CPG food companies, kitchen appliance brands, food retailers, and wellness platforms.
SideChef firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- SideChef
- Legal name
- SideChef Inc.
- Website
- https://sidechef.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2013
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- SideChef is a recipe technology platform offering a consumer app with 18,000+ shoppable recipes integrated with Walmart grocery, alongside an enterprise platform providing AI-powered recipe generation and commerce solutions to CPG brands, kitchen appliance OEMs such as LG and V-ZUG, and food retailers.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where SideChef is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
SideChef business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Freemium Subscriptions: Digital meal plans and premium subscriptions offered on a freemium basis, where basic features are free and premium features require payment.
- In-Recipe Shoppable Ads: Sponsored content within recipes where brands pay for product placement and direct purchase integration within recipe instructions.
- Sponsored Content with CPG Brands: Branded recipe content partnerships with consumer packaged goods companies seeking to promote their products through recipe integration.
- Transaction Fees from Grocery Integration: Revenue from Walmart partnership where users purchase ingredients directly from recipes, potentially earning transaction fees or referral revenue from completed grocery orders.
- Enterprise Technology Licensing: B2B solutions including Cooking Experience Platform (CXP), Cost-Per-Order (CPO) campaigns, and 'Powered by SideChef' white-label technology offered to kitchen appliance brands, food retailers, and CPG companies.
- Campaign Pages: Branded campaign pages created for partners seeking targeted recipe-based marketing campaigns with measurable engagement and conversion metrics.
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels8 records
SideChef product offering
Product offeringCore offering
SideChef provides a consumer mobile and web recipe platform featuring 18,000+ shoppable recipes with one-click Walmart grocery integration, meal planning, and AI-powered recipe generation (RecipeGen AI). On the enterprise side, it sells a Cooking Experience Platform (CXP), Cost-Per-Order (CPO) performance campaigns, Shoppable Tech, AI recipe generation via SideChef Studio, and white-label 'Powered by SideChef' integrations to CPG brands, kitchen appliance OEMs (LG, V-ZUG), and food retailers seeking to embed shoppable recipe experiences into their own platforms.
Product overview
SideChef is a recipe platform operating for over 12 years that offers a consumer mobile app with over 18,000 shoppable recipes, paired with a B2B enterprise platform (Cooking Experience Platform) providing AI-powered technology solutions. The consumer offering includes the SideChef App with meal planning, grocery integration with Walmart, and AI features like RecipeGen AI and SideChef Studio. The B2B segment offers Cost-Per-Order Campaigns, Shoppable Tech, and Content Creation services for CPG brands, online retailers, and kitchen appliance manufacturers seeking to integrate commerce into recipe content.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- RecipeGen AI: Beta AI feature that allows users to photograph any dish and receive an instant step-by-step shoppable recipe generated by artificial intelligence.
- SideChef Studio
- One-Click Shoppable Recipes
Products and services
- SideChef App Consumer mobile (iOS/Android) and web recipe platform featuring over 18,000 shoppable recipes, step-by-step cooking instructions, meal planning tools, grocery list generation, personal food preference tracking, and one-click Walmart grocery integration. Available to individual home cooks on a freemium basis with premium features via subscription.
- Cooking Experience Platform (CXP) Enterprise B2B platform enabling CPG brands, recipe creators, and kitchen appliance manufacturers to integrate shoppable recipes, AI-powered recipe content, and connected cooking technology into their own platforms. Sold as a standalone enterprise offering.
- SideChef AI AI-powered enterprise technology platform encompassing personalized nutrition, generative recipe creation, and shoppable recipe capabilities. Positioned as the integration path for recipe creators, online retailers, and food or kitchen appliance brands seeking to embed commerce-enabled AI recipe content.
- RecipeGen AI AI-powered photo-to-recipe product that accepts an image of any dish as input and outputs a step-by-step shoppable recipe. Available to consumers in the SideChef app as a beta and offered to enterprise partners as a 'Powered by SideChef' capability for expanding recipe libraries.
- SideChef Studio White-label / API AI recipe generator for enterprise use, enabling CPG brands and recipe platforms to produce customized, shoppable recipe content at scale using SideChef's generative AI technology.
- Cost-Per-Order Campaigns (CPO) Performance-based advertising service for CPG brands where payment is triggered only when users complete grocery orders originating from SideChef shoppable recipes. Sold as a standalone campaign service to brand advertisers.
- Shoppable Tech Enterprise technology service that converts recipe content into actionable grocery commerce, providing product matching, ingredient substitution, and direct add-to-cart integration with retailer e-commerce platforms.
- Content Creation B2B recipe content creation service for CPG brands, producing sponsored recipes, branded campaign pages, and brand-specific shoppable recipe content for integration into partner platforms and SideChef's consumer app.
Quantifiable outcome
- 67% of consumers likely to make grocery purchases directly from digital recipes (2024 Deloitte study)
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use SideChef
Customer profileSegments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
SideChef technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
AI capability5 records
Feature4 records
SideChef partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.
- Bacardi (Mixlab)minorSideChef partnered with Bacardi's Mixlab cocktail platform to provide recipe content for cocktail and beverage pairings, integrated into SideChef's UX best practices case studies.
- V-ZUG (V-Kitchen)minorSideChef partnered with Swiss appliance manufacturer V-ZUG to integrate its recipe platform as the V-Kitchen cooking hub, enabling connected cooking experiences with V-ZUG smart appliances.
- LG (ThinQ Recipe Hub)coreSideChef is integrated into LG's ThinQ Recipe Hub, providing shoppable recipe content to LG smart appliance users and enabling recipe-driven cooking experiences through LG's connected kitchen ecosystem.
- WalmartcoreWalmart partnership enables SideChef users to purchase recipe ingredients directly from recipes with one-click shopping integration. Users can select their Walmart store, add recipe ingredients to cart, and checkout with delivery or curbside pickup options.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
SideChef competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Yummly: Whirlpool-owned smart recipe and meal-planning platform offering personalized recipes, grocery integration, and connected-appliance compatibility. Directly comparable to SideChef in shoppable recipes, meal planning, and smart-kitchen positioning.
- Whisk: AI-powered recipe platform and shopping-list technology provider owned by Samsung. Closely comparable to SideChef's Cooking Experience Platform and smart-appliance OEM strategy, with strong B2B focus on retailers and appliance brands.
- Innit: Connected-food platform providing personalized nutrition, guided cooking, and grocery integration for appliance OEMs and retailers. Direct competitor in shoppable recipe technology and smart-kitchen ecosystem partnerships.
Broad incumbents
- Allrecipes: Largest consumer recipe platform (Dotdash Meredith) with a massive UGC recipe library, meal planning, and grocery list features. Comparable consumer-side offering to SideChef but without the same depth of shoppable commerce or appliance integrations.
- Tasty (BuzzFeed): Video-first recipe brand with massive social distribution across Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. Comparable as a recipe-discovery and content platform competing for the same consumer mindshare.
- MyFitnessPal: Largest nutrition-tracking platform, identified in SideChef's own competitive set for personalized nutrition. Adjacent rather than directly competing, but increasingly overlapping in AI-driven nutrition and meal recommendations.
Emerging players
- Eat This Much: AI-driven automated meal planning platform with grocery delivery integration. Comparable in the AI-meal-planning and grocery-commerce overlap with SideChef, though focused primarily on subscription meal-plan generation.
- Mealime: Meal-planning app with grocery list and delivery integration. Comparable to SideChef's consumer app in meal planning and grocery shopping workflow, with overlapping target audience of home cooks.
- Chefling: Smart-kitchen app offering pantry tracking, recipe suggestions, and grocery integration. Comparable to SideChef in the smart-kitchen and grocery-commerce space, with similar SMB-pantry-management features.
- Plant Jammer: AI-powered recipe app that generates recipes based on ingredients the user has on hand. Closely comparable to SideChef's RecipeGen AI in the AI-recipe-generation category.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
SideChef social profiles
Digital presenceSideChef financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
SideChef leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
SideChef funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors10 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
SideChef M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about SideChef
What does SideChef do?
SideChef provides a consumer mobile and web recipe platform featuring 18,000+ shoppable recipes with one-click Walmart grocery integration, meal planning, and AI-powered recipe generation (RecipeGen AI). On the enterprise side, it sells a Cooking Experience Platform (CXP), Cost-Per-Order (CPO) performance campaigns, Shoppable Tech, AI recipe generation via SideChef Studio, and white-label 'Powered by SideChef' integrations to CPG brands, kitchen appliance OEMs (LG, V-ZUG), and food retailers seeking to embed shoppable recipe experiences into their own platforms.
Is SideChef a public or private company?
SideChef is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was SideChef founded?
SideChef was founded in 2013. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is SideChef based?
SideChef is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does SideChef make money?
Six revenue lines are on record. Freemium Subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are in-Recipe Shoppable Ads, sponsored Content with CPG Brands, transaction Fees from Grocery Integration, enterprise Technology Licensing and campaign Pages.
Who are SideChef's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Yummly, Whisk and Innit. Broad incumbents are Allrecipes, Tasty (BuzzFeed) and MyFitnessPal. Emerging players are Eat This Much, Mealime, Chefling and Plant Jammer.
Does SideChef have an API?
No public API is recorded for SideChef.