How Kamereo Is Rewiring Vietnam’s Food Supply Chain with Discipline and Kaizen

Recently, our team at Genesia Ventures had the opportunity to visit Kamereo’s Fulfillment Center in Tay Thanh, Ho Chi Minh City—an experience that stayed with me long after we left. Seeing the scale of their growing Food supply chain up close was impressive in itself. But what stood out even more was the quiet discipline behind it all—the team’s attention to detail, their consistency, and the level of care they bring to every part of the operation. It led me to reflect on how this startup has managed to navigate such a difficult space and continue scaling, largely through its own internal strength —one built on discipline and a relentless commitment to Kaizen.

Kamereo is a B2B platform that supplies wholesale food to restaurants, hotels, cafés, supermarkets, convenience stores, and food retailers across Vietnam. Today, more than 5,000 kitchens rely on Kamereo every day. Even from that alone, it’s easy to imagine how challenging the early days must have been. Building a food supply chain in Vietnam is not just difficult—it’s inherently complex, especially for startups with limited resources. Pricing, quality, and operational efficiency are all critical, and they all need to be solved at the same time. Many have tried. Not many have lasted.

In a previous blog post, I wrote about the challenge of building a food supply chain from scratch—particularly the “chicken-and-egg” problem of supply and demand, and how creating a flywheel between the two is key. In practice, this requires a very deliberate sequence. It often starts with identifying a distinctive source of supply to attract an initial group of customers. From there, supply is gradually expanded to better serve and retain that demand. Over time, stronger relationships on the supply side unlock better pricing and differentiation, which in turn reinforces demand.

Executing this well is not easy. It requires discipline in choosing the right starting point, patience to stay the course, and constant effort to refine every advantage along the way. From the beginning, Kamereo showed that kind of discipline. By leveraging the founder’s Japanese background and deep connections within the Japanese F&B community, the company focused first on a niche segment—Japanese restaurants. This gave them a clear starting point. From there, they expanded their supply step by step, prioritizing high-frequency products that customers often reorder. Over time, this not only grew demand but also increased wallet share within each customer.

Behind this growth is a strong foundation in operational excellence, shaped by the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen—continuous, incremental improvement. You can see it across the entire system, from sourcing to ordering to fulfillment. Processes are designed carefully and executed consistently. Quality control, in particular, is rigorous, with four layers of inspection repeated systematically. The outcomes reflect that discipline: 99% on-time delivery, 98% fulfillment accuracy, and a 99.5% operational accuracy rate.

During our visit, another aspect that stood out was Kamereo’s adherence to HACCP standards. Every stage—from receiving goods to storage to delivery—is governed by clearly defined control points. The warehouse itself is thoughtfully organized into dry, chilled, and frozen zones, with conditions closely monitored to ensure each product is handled appropriately.

This level of structure is quite different from the broader reality of Vietnam’s food supply chain, which still relies heavily on fragmented, relationship-based networks. In many cases, ordering, delivery, and quality control remain manual and dependent on personal trust. While that can offer flexibility in the short term, it often comes at the cost of consistency, cost transparency, and traceability.

Kamereo takes a different approach. Beyond operational rigor, they also emphasize transparency—issuing VAT invoices for every order, regardless of size. This helps customers formalize their input costs, simplify tax reporting, and reduce compliance risks.

More importantly, Kamereo is not positioning itself as just another intermediary. The ambition is to build a more integrated supply ecosystem for the F&B industry—where customers can source a wide range of ingredients through a single platform, with better control over ordering, delivery, and quality, and less reliance on multiple middle layers. This approach is reflected in their customer retention. On average, more than 80% of customers continue using Kamereo month over month. That kind of retention says a lot—not just about product-market fit, but about trust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGQzaScJfxk

At the heart of it is Kamereo’s ability to build real stickiness by consistently delivering what customers value most. As Founder & CEO Taku Tanaka shared, the team has been clear from the start about its value proposition: competitive pricing, consistently reliable product quality, dependable service as a one-stop purchasing destination.

Delivering on that promise is not a one-time effort. It requires continuous refinement. The team embraces Kaizen not just as a concept, but as a daily practice—constantly learning from customer feedback and operational data. At the same time, the separation between Sales and Customer Support teams—each with distinct roles and focus—allows them to both acquire new customers effectively and build long-term relationships with existing ones.

What left the strongest impression on me, however, was something less visible: the company’s focus on people. In our dinner conversation with Taku after the visit, it became clear how much thought and energy he puts into building the team—recruiting, developing, and aligning people around shared values. That investment in people is what ultimately strengthens the organization from within.

In such ways, Kamereo’s journey reflects what disciplined execution and continuous improvement can achieve over time, and founder Taku’s enduring commitment to "building a business that lives longer than himself". From a focused niche to a growing, diverse customer base, the company is steadily expanding its role in Vietnam’s food supply chain—serving not just restaurants, but also cafés, hotels, supermarkets, and beyond. It is a reminder that even in one of the most complex sectors, progress is possible—not through shortcuts, but through clarity, consistency, and a long-term commitment to doing things better every day. Yeah, just keep fighting, team Kamereo!