In the wake of the many high-profile ghost kitchen pivots and delivery-only failures, it is easy to write off the concept of virtual brands. But in Berlin, the story appears quite different as two-year-old startup Milano Vice just announced a €8.3mm Series A, bringing its total funding to €14.2mm. The brand is an Italian-inspired pizza delivery concept wedged between high-end artisanal brick-and-mortar pizzerias and older franchises like Domino’s and Pizza Hut. It currently counts 60 host kitchens spread throughout regions like Berlin, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, and Frankfurt, with eyes set on international expansion. This week, HNGRY sat down with Co-Founder & CEO Rudi Donauer to uncover what sets his model apart from the likes of Nextbite, Virtual Dining Concepts, and C3. 

“The fundamental thing is that we really treat it as a real restaurant with a relentless focus on very few things,“ said Donauer. “In the classic Uber virtual restaurant model, they are happy doing a few thousand Euros per month. If a store [on our system] does €5k per month we’d consider offloading them.”