Dévorer to replace South Kensington Farmer’s Market in January 2026
The startup, co-founded by a former Imperial Business School student, will rotate vendors and introduce “meal deals” to the Tuesday food court.
Dévorer, a foodtech platform co-founded by a former Imperial Business School student, is set to replace the South Kensington Farmer’s Market in January 2026, after trials in White City Campus this past summer.
The firm aims to bring more varied and affordable street food options to university campuses, leveraging data analysis tools. “We want to cater directly to demand, and we want to make sure that students don’t have to leave campus to buy food,” Eric Andratchnikov, one of Dévorer’s co-founders, told Felix. “We know what they’re buying, and we’re able to also tailor the prices to students’ liking.”
Dévorer partners with over 350 street food vendors, which are deployed at the firm’s 60 operational sites around the UK, including the campuses of LSE and Cambridge University.
“We are different from any other catering company that hosts street food vendors, because we operate a feedback loop system,” Andratchnikov explained. Using hardware from a partner and a proprietary dashboard and AI model, the foodtech collects data to inform its vendor choice. “The more vendors we deploy, the more accurate is the forecasting system.”
“What we do is we gather sales data from the vendors, and then footfall data using different hardware – that could be Wi-Fi sensors or that could be computer vision.” Collecting both sales data and footfall allows Dévorer to calculate conversion rates, a metric they say is “absolutely fundamental when determining the demand or the success of a cuisine provider or product type.”
Direct student feedback will also be accounted for in the form of “surveys” and “interviews”.
Dévorer could not give us the specific date that they would start the regular Tuesday market, explaining that they were still waiting for planning permission (a formal approval from the borough required to change the use of land). They are expecting approval by Friday 5th December.
Students can expect the number of food stalls on the regular Tuesday schedule to be reduced to 20, down from the 28 currently manned. “There’s still enough room for variety, but each vendor can generate more money,” Andratchnikov said of the new setup. “Most of the vendors are unhappy, in general, […] when their cuisine is diluted with competitors.”
Each Tuesday, most of the 20 vendors on campus would be the “strongest performers” that have been shown by Dévorer’s data to be favoured by students, while “a small pool” would rotate from one week to the next.
We asked Dévorer how prices – which currently hover around £10 a meal – would be affected by the change. “We will try to keep it [the price range] as flexible as possible,” Andratchnikov told us, adding that Dévorer had agreed with Imperial to cap prices at “around £12”. Novelties will include the introduction of “meal deals” and loyalty programs for some vendor: “We’ve done that before at White City.”
The startup could also take on catering for ad-hoc events, like Christmas markets or graduation ceremonies.
Current Farmer’s Market vendors were invited to apply and join Dévorer’s network. “Whenever a vendor goes onto that partner’s page, there’s a very clear step-by-step guide of what to do to become a partner,” Andratchnikov told us. “By being a member of our vendor pool, you get access to sites across the UK.”
Applicants are asked for health and safety documents, with the requirement of having a 5-star hygiene ratings. When they were first questioned by Felix, some current vendors expressed concerns.
“It’s very disappointing,” one stallholder told Felix. “We’ve been here for about four years now, so for that to suddenly come to an end with such short notice will affect our business.”
Another vendor said he would also be disappointed if new traders are brought in, telling Felix that the current Imperial Farmer’s Market has a very good atmosphere and his colleagues know the customers quite well.
Multiple vendors say they reached out to Dévorer with questions and received no reply, although Felix understands that it is London Farmers Markets’ responsibility to share operational updates to their vendor base.
Dévorer’s co-founders said they often visited the market on Tuesday, giving their contact to stallholders and announcing the change, in addition to communication via “email, text, in person and phone calls”. They insisted that they had reached out to vendors again after our interview to clear up any confusion of the changes being made.
