KAMEREO: How a Japanese Entrepreneur Is Reshaping Food Sourcing in Vietnam

KAMEREO is a B2B (business-to-business) food sourcing platform that delivers ingredients to restaurants, cafés, hotels, and more across Vietnam. It was co-founded in 2018 by Taku Tanaka, the former COO of Pizza 4P's who now serves as KAMEREO's CEO. Instead of chasing down scattered suppliers at the market, a venue can order through a single app and receive deliveries from KAMEREO's own warehouses.

KAMEREO by the numbers:

• More than 3,000 business customers (Vietcetera)
• Over $15 million raised in total (across six years, The Investor)
• Average annual revenue growth of over 300% since it fully launched in 2019 (Vietcetera)

KAMEREO itself does not sell to households at retail. But with the same values of clear provenance, proper cold-chain handling, and on-time delivery, we at Farmi bring Japanese groceries to Japanese families living in Ho Chi Minh City. You can order entirely in Japanese and receive your groceries in as little as one hour. The "Japanese quality" that professional kitchens rely on, brought straight to your home kitchen. Get it on the App Store or Google Play.

What Is KAMEREO?

Put simply, it is an online wholesale supermarket for businesses. Restaurants, cafés, hotels, and catering operations order the ingredients their kitchens can't do without — vegetables, meat, seafood, seasonings — through an app, and have them delivered right to their door.

What sets KAMEREO apart is that it doesn't just broker orders. It operates its own temperature-controlled warehouses and delivery network. That lets the company control the three things Vietnam's traditional distribution has long struggled with: quality, price, and delivery time.

Co-founder and CEO Taku Tanaka served as COO at Pizza 4P's. Running kitchens and a restaurant chain taught him firsthand how unreliable ingredient sourcing could be, and that experience became the spark for starting the company.

Why It's Drawing Attention in Vietnam's Dining Industry

Restaurant owners in Ho Chi Minh City face a familiar set of sourcing headaches.

• Quality and pricing vary from supplier to supplier. That makes costs hard to forecast.
• Late and incorrect deliveries happen. A kitchen can grind to a halt during peak hours.
• There are too many suppliers. Vegetables, meat, fish, and seasonings each mean dealing with a different vendor.

KAMEREO consolidates all of this onto a single platform. One place to order, one invoice, transparent pricing. For an F&B industry with thin margins where stable operations are everything, that's a major step forward.

Its customers aren't only restaurants. The reach extends to supermarkets, convenience stores, factories, schools, and hospitals, and includes restaurants featured in Michelin recommendation lists, major hotels such as Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, and F&B chains.

> What professional kitchens value, home kitchens value too. Clear provenance, proper cold-chain handling, and on-time delivery. The Farmi app brings that same "Japanese quality" to households in Ho Chi Minh City. The app, the delivery drivers, and customer support are all available in Japanese, English, and Vietnamese.

The Funding and Expansion Journey

KAMEREO was founded in 2018, with its first funding round and serious expansion beginning in 2019. That momentum shows clearly in the flow of capital, much of it coming from Japanese companies and funds.

Date	Round	Amount	Source
2019	Seed round	$500K	The Investor
2021	Series A	$4.6M	The Investor
April 2024	Pre-Series B	$2.1M	The Investor
December 2024	Series B	$7.8M	Nikkei Asia

The December 2024 Series B ($7.8M) drew participation from Sumitomo Corporation, SMBC Venture Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Reazon Holdings, and Inspire. That round pushed total funding past the $15 million mark.

The capital is going toward expansion across Vietnam and a broader product range. In early 2025, KAMEREO entered Hanoi and won over 100 customers in its first three months. It is also running refrigerated transport linking the north and south, with expansion into central Vietnam on the horizon.

Why Japanese Capital Is Betting on Vietnamese Food

It's no coincidence that heavyweights like Sumitomo Corporation and Mitsubishi UFJ are backing a startup that delivers ingredients to kitchens. Three simple reasons sit behind it.

• A large, increasingly affluent population. Vietnam is home to more than 100 million people, and its middle class keeps expanding (Báo Đầu tư).
• Rising standards for food quality. As incomes climb, so do expectations around food safety and freshness. A service built on clear provenance and temperature control answers those concerns head-on (VnEconomy).
• Big upside in the "behind-the-scenes" infrastructure. Consumer food-delivery apps have taken off, but the supply network feeding kitchens is still fragmented. For players bringing technology and a Japanese way of working, this is wide-open territory.

Rather than flashy consumer apps, Japanese capital is flowing into the "backstage" of warehouses and logistics. This isn't just KAMEREO's story — it's part of a longer trend.

What It Means for Those of Us Living in Ho Chi Minh City

KAMEREO is a business-to-business service and does not sell retail to households. But its value comes down to a very simple principle: clear provenance, proper cold-chain handling, and on-time delivery. That applies not only to professional kitchens but to everyone who cares about the quality of their ingredients.

Farmi brings that "Japanese quality" mindset to households in Ho Chi Minh City.

• Japanese groceries and imported brands, from seasonings to fresh produce, all orderable through the app.
• Delivery in as little as one hour. Perfect for last-minute top-ups.
• Available in Japanese, English, and Vietnamese. The app, the delivery drivers, and support — no language worries.
• A selection built around provenance and temperature control. You can choose without second-guessing where it came from or whether it's been kept properly chilled.

Japanese groceries in Ho Chi Minh City, in Japanese, right away. Download it on the App Store or Google Play. Learn more at farmi.vn.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does KAMEREO sell retail to individuals? No. KAMEREO focuses on business customers such as restaurants, hotels, schools, and factories. Individuals should use a consumer grocery app (like Farmi).

Where is KAMEREO based? It's a company operating in Vietnam, co-founded by Japanese entrepreneur Taku Tanaka, with many of its investors being Japanese companies.

What does KAMEREO carry? In addition to kitchen ingredients for F&B businesses — vegetables, meat, seafood, seasonings, and more — it also carries partner products and its own private-label items.

Where is KAMEREO available? It's headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, expanded to Hanoi in early 2025, and plans to move into central Vietnam.

KAMEREO is a prime example of how Vietnamese food is going digital not just "on the table" but in the sourcing infrastructure behind it. And the more Japanese-style standards work their way into each step of the process, the more reassurance Vietnam's tables gain — in restaurants and at home alike.

Reference links

• The Investor: Vietnam-based food sourcing startup Kamereo nets $7.8 mln in Series B funding
• Nikkei Asia: Vietnam e-commerce food supplier Kamereo secures $7.8m funding
• Vietcetera: KAMEREO Secures $7.8M Series B
• Vietcetera: KAMEREO Secures $2.1 Million Funding Boost (source for the 300% annual growth figure)
• TNGlobal: Vietnam's Kamereo expands to Hanoi
• Sogyotecho: KAMEREO Taku Tanaka Interview

> Note: This article and some of its images were created with the help of AI (artificial intelligence) and reviewed by our editorial team before publication.