From an entrepreneurial idea that started in a 20-square-meter kitchen to serving more than 4,000 daily meals to companies of all types in the Barcelona area. Now, Nora Real Food's healthy food for companies reaches its diners through its digital platform and its physical canteens, which it has opened in companies such as Mango, Glovo, and Social Point.
The foodtech, with more than 100 employees, is committed to boosting the management of physical canteens to continue growing, with the forecast of reaching 10 million in turnover this year. Although the company was born as a digital platform for personalized menus for companies, the startup expanded its business to physical canteens. This modality, which already represents 60% of revenues, consists of sending Nora Real Food chefs to companies to prepare food from their facilities, whether they are large corporations or small startups.
With its model, Nora Real Food has been gaining ground in Barcelona and its metropolitan area. "Our intention is, in the short-medium term, to go to Madrid," highlights the co-founder of the company, Nora Barata. "The forecast is to prepare the landing in Madrid starting next year," remarks the promoter of Nora Real Food, who started cooking up the startup eight years ago.
In fact, the project started much earlier. "Since I was little, I've loved cooking; I was shy, and cooking was my way of expressing myself." But, at a time when hospitality was not part of the university world, she graduated in Economics, and then went through sectors ranging from automotive to tourism and healthcare. Until she turned 50, and decided to take the plunge, keeping in mind a premise: "Making your passion coincide with your profession is a luxury."
That's how, with her daughter, Nora Vallcorba, she began to "travel the world" to learn about various business models linked to cooking. "And there we saw the gap, in the city of London, with a company that offered very carefully prepared and healthy menus to employees in the area." Inspired by that company ---"which was very different from everything that existed at that time"---, Vallcorba focused her final degree project at Esade on developing a similar company, "and those were the foundations."
"The office sector is infinite, people need to eat, and how important it is to take care of that in the workplace. That also has a great social impact," Barata defends. With this background vision, she decided to take the leap in 2017; she left her job and bet everything on Nora Real Food: "I put all my eggs in one basket."
She took that leap in a 20-square-meter kitchen. "We served with emails, and out of 30 orders, we made mistakes in 20. It was just me and the cook, and I delivered myself as orders came out," she recalls. And how has she managed to grow from thirty orders to 4,000 daily menus? "By listening to the client and through trial and error, being very open to the market and its evolution. You constantly make mistakes, and the point is to keep improving," Barata explains. A year after opening in that 20-square-meter kitchen, the startup moved to a larger premises on the same street: "A nearby restaurant closed, and we took over the space, and also a cook."
Taking advantage of this unforeseen opportunity led the company to reach 300 orders, launch the website, and expand the founding team, with Nora Vallcorba and also Albert Solé. "We started to grow and renovate a new central kitchen and, in full expansion and in the middle of construction, the pandemic hit us." To stay afloat, they did a family and friends round of 455,000 euros, and they didn't stand still: "We did a fundraiser to serve solidarity menus to hospitals." And they served about 6,000, with three people working.
After the debacle caused by the pandemic, "we started to get out of the hole". In 2021, they invoiced 1.3 million euros, and in 2022 they practically doubled it, with 2.9 million. Turnover climbed in 2023 to almost five million, and last year they exceeded seven. "We plan to close 2025 with ten million euros," Barata highlights.
This increase in turnover is linked to the opening of new services, with one protagonist: physical canteens permanently located in large companies. To the digital platform of healthy menus to distribute in companies from a central kitchen in Barcelona, the startup added this modality: physical canteens, through which its staff moves to the company and cooks on-site, for workforces that in several cases exceed 500 employees. "An example is Mango, where we have 25 people working." Now, the company intends to continue expanding, also territorially, with Madrid as the next step in its roadmap.