Entrepreneurship came about unexpectedly for Qadreya Al Awadhi, the 29-year-old Emirati and founder of baby food company Bumblebee, who also works full-time in a leading bank in the UAE.
It was her father's entrepreneurial spirit that sparked a passion within her from a young age. “I never wanted to pursue business. I always loved food … but I was also constantly changing my mind, like all kids,” Ms Al Awadhi says.
“My dad saw it and said, 'you know what, let's just do business. It's safe, it's the background that we all come from. It's something I can help you with.' And from [a] business [background], you can always do whatever you want, like food [business]. But if you stick to, for example, [becoming a] doctor, then you cannot really change your career.”
Her father also helped her understand money and stocks, Ms Al Awadhi says, which is how she started investing at 16 with his guidance. “He really helped establish that solid foundation in numbers. I pursued that into college, university, even into my master's degree, and then I went back to work in the financial sector,” she adds.
While Ms Al Awadhi had always wanted to start a food business at some point, she thought it would be setting up a restaurant much later in her life.
It was in 2020 when she was babysitting for a friend that Ms Al Awadhi noticed the only food pouch available to feed the six-month-old child was older than the child himself. “It had this unpleasant colour and when I tried it there was no taste, bland even though it was something made with blueberries.”
This piqued her interest, prompting her to explore the possibility of creating delicious, nutritious meals for children, particularly for busy working mothers such as herself and her friends. She consulted experts to gain insight into the nutritional and textural needs of baby food at various stages of development.
“Before, for example, I didn’t know you could feed chicken to infants. And now, I know they could chew on an entire drumstick and get the nutrition from the juices in it. And at the same time, it helps develop their motor skills because they learn how to grab. It also helps hand-mouth co-ordination and helps them learn how to chew with their teeth,” she explains.
Frozen v fresh
Ms Al Awadhi, who has a qualification from the School of Culinary and Finishing Arts in Dubai, began her journey by experimenting with recipes in her own kitchen and tested the products with a soft launch among friends and family in 2021. In the meantime, she collaborated with a team of chefs and nutritionists from around the world to develop a range of recipes.
“I work with Yasmin Haddad in Dubai – she is one of the few specialised nutrition experts here in the UAE – and I work with someone from London, another in Los Angeles and a nutritionist in South Africa," she says.
"I work with so many different experts [because of] the diversity they bring, because each region has its own nutritional standards. Each one has their own practices, and each one even approaches ingredients and textures differently.”
The decision to focus on frozen food was driven by the logistical challenges presented by the Covid pandemic, she says. Freezing the food ensured convenient and secure delivery for customers, while also alleviating the burden of storage and cooking.
Bumblebee was founded by Ms Al Awadhi in 2022. However, she acknowledges there were obstacles to overcome, particularly regarding concerns about the nutritional value of frozen food. The challenges primarily arose due to widespread misconceptions surrounding frozen food, especially about microwave meals from the 1980s and 1990s. Back then, it was common practice to simply poke holes in the covering of a frozen dinner, heat it in the microwave and consider it done, she explains.
“The challenging thing was just educating mums … especially on the instructions on how to thaw it, to help them understand that it is freshly cooked and then we freeze it, then all you need to do is defrost,” Ms Al Awadhi explains. Her company is focused on healthy food from "farm to freezer", cooked without sugar, salt, additives or preservatives, and served in sustainable chemical-free, baby-safe pouches and boxes.
A report last year by Cognitive Market Research found the global frozen baby foods market is expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 9.5 per cent from 2023 to 2030. Another report by 360iResearch found the same market, including frozen meals, grew to $82.84 billion in 2024, from $77.69 billion the previous year.
Customer relationships
At the beginning, Ms Al Awadhi would ask her friends and family to record and share videos of the babies enjoying her food. She includes her personal phone number on the email confirmation of orders so customers can easily contact her with any questions or concerns. However, she is cautious about asking for feedback too frequently, as she believes it may come across as "nagging".
“If customers reorder, I take that as them liking it. To ensure quality and taste, every new product goes through a series of checks. Just before the final launch, I send the product to our loyal customers, for feedback."
Funding and expansion plans
Ms Al Awadhi invested Dh150,000 ($40,838) to kickstart the venture, and she managed to break even within the first six months of the launch. She spent another Dh100,000 (in total investments into the business) from then until now. "That's before the expansion plans,” Ms Al Awadhi says.
Following a successful pitch on the first season of Shark Tank Dubai in April 2024, she accepted funding offers from angel investors Faisal Juma Belhoul, founder of Ithmar Capital and Amanat Holdings, Amira Sajwani, founder and chief executive of Prypco and managing director of Damac Holdings, and Noor Sweid, founder and managing partner at Global Ventures. However, Ms Al Awadhi did not disclose the amount they have invested as she signed a non-disclosure agreement with them.
She says her initial focus for the new investment will be establishing a custom-built kitchen space and acquiring new machinery to support the development of new products. "What I want to do now is more of a customised space where I can literally build it from the ground up and one that would last me [for the] long term."
The company offers a variety of meals, snacks, accessories and monthly meal plans for children as young as six months. “The meal plan is a monthly subscription that you get for 20 days, weekends excluded, and you get two to three meals a day, depending on how old your baby is. If it's six months, you get two meals. And if it's a toddler, then you get three meals, including breakfast,” Ms Al Awadhi explains.
The company was servicing up to 50 subscribers a month in addition to regular orders but these were paused before November as the focus shifted to festive-themed offerings and pop-up markets. "I will reintroduce them again early next year. So in the meantime, we're just doing the [individual] orders."
Q&A with Qadreya Al Awadhi, founder and chief executive of Bumblebee:
Who is your role model?
I would say my dad. Ever since I was a little girl, he's been working. I remember when I was a kid and in school, they'd ask, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’, and I would say, 'I want to be a businessman just like my dad'. And the best days were when he used to take me to his office ... he instils ethics in me.
What is a business milestone you cherish?
My very first customer. The order was from Abu Dhabi – my first order that wasn't from friends or family. The woman placed the order when her baby was six months old and then, just a few months ago, I saw the same customer place an order again ... this time, for her second baby.
What's the most useful feedback you've had?
It was from my four-year-old cousin. She was eating spaghetti and meatballs, and then she looked at me and said, ‘I don't like the spaghetti … it doesn't have any salt, it doesn't have any sauce. I don't want this.’ But then she ate the meatballs. So I decided to take the spaghetti out of the meal. It was just meatballs and sauce, and this became our biggest seller. And at one point, we were selling easily 100 meals a day.
What's your mantra for success?
As cliched as it sounds, it would just be to believe in yourself and give everything a fair shot. Do your best so that even if it doesn't work out, in 20 or 30 years, you will look back knowing you did everything possible.
Company profile
Company name: Bumblebee
Founder: Qadreya Al Awadhi
Based in: Dubai
Valuation: Dh1.5 million
Sector: FMCG
Founded: 2022
Initial investment: Dh250,000 since launch
Angel investment: Undisclosed
