Shaun Smithson (left), Tiffin Labs Co-founder and President of U.S. operations, is part of the culinary team of expert chefs who develop virtual restaurant brands for the company’s operating partners. — Photo by NewcrestImage, LLC

NewcrestImage has become an investment partner in TiffinLabs, a Singapore-based food tech company that is aggressively 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 virtual brands across Singapore and Malaysia since its founding in 2020, started its expansion into the United States in Dallas in 2021 and now 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 TiffinLabs concept operate under such brands as Hilton Garden Inn, Doubletree, Hyatt Place, AC Hotels, Courtyard, and Best Western. Hotel companies that are TiffinLabs operating partners include HP Hotels, PM Hotel Group, Murphy Asset Management, Aimbridge Hospitality, and NewcrestImage.

Patel added that many TiffinLabs operators have achieved dramatically higher revenues and better margins, such as four-fold increases in delivery and on-premises income, and 30% increases in overall profit.

To operate as a TiffinLabs site, a restaurant or hotel uses its existing brick-and-mortar kitchen to tap into the growing food delivery market and attract new customers.

“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.

This new partnership with TiffinLabs continues Dallas-based NewcrestImage’s rich history of transforming the hospitality industry. In recent years, the company has popularized trend-setting concepts such as dual-brand properties; adaptive reuse of historic buildings; and the “lifestyle hotel campus,” which creates vibrant mixed-use neighborhoods.