A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally
RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – FOOD TECH
- Delivery Hero, a food delivery startup which has presence in 40 countries, raises $421M from Naspers at the current valuation of over $3.1B amid speculation of IPO. Link
- Soylent, a brand and manufacturer of meal replacement products, raises $50M in Series B round led by GV (formerly known as Google Ventures). Link
- Dinova, an online restaurants marketplace for corporate diners, raises $40M from Frontier Capital. Link
- Frichti, a French startup that operates delivery only kitchens, raises $33.7M led by Verlinvest and Felix Capital. Link
- Eatclub, a corporate lunch delivery startup raises $30M in Series C round led by a strategic investor Sodexo, a French food services and facilities management company. Link
- Zomato, a restaurant discovery and online ordering platform, raises $20M from existing investors. The company claims that its annual cash burn reduced to $12M from $64M in previous year. Link
- Chef’d, a meal kit delivery startup raises $10M in a Series B round led by Campbell Soup. Link
- Bluecart, a wholesale procurement platform for restaurants, raises $10M in a Series B round led by Jagmohan Bansal and Konstantin Zvereff. Link
- Sun Basket, a meal kit delivery startup raises $9.2M in a Series C-2 round led by Unilever Ventures. Link
- Spotluck, an app based platform to avail discounts at restaurants, raises $4.8M led by Jobi Capital. Link
- Mail.ru, a Russia-based diversified internet-media company, acquires remaining 90% shares of Zakazaka, a food delivery platform in an all cash deal for $18M. Link
- Whirlpool acquires Yummly, a crowd sourced recipe aggregating platform which was last valued at $100M. Link
- Just Eat’s $200M acquisition of Hungryhouse, a food delivery company, faces an indepth probe from British regulator, Competition and Markets Authority. Link
- Zomato to reach out to 6.6M customers to update their account security after 17M customer records were hacked from its database. Link
- HungryGoWhere, a Singaporean restaurant discovery platform, partners with Foodpanda for meal delivery service. Link
- Opentable, a restaurant reservation platform, introduces online booking feature through Facebook Messenger. Link
- TerraVia, a manufacturer of algae based food ingredients, plans to sell part of or entire company to restructure its debt. The company reported $22.6M loss in 1Q17 compared to $26.5M in 1Q16. Link
- 1919, a Chinese etailer of alcoholic beverages, reports 141% increase in annual revenue to $420M boosted by growing offline presence. Link
- Delivery Hero, reports 71% increase in annual revenue, in terms value of orders processed, to $2.6B. Link
SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND
SuperMeat (2015, Tel Aviv) – Biotech company developing technology to produce lab cultured meat.
LEADER BOARD – FOOD TECH
Ordering & Delivery
GrubHub (2004, Chicago, IPO) – Online and mobile platform for ordering food. Went public in 2014.
JustEat (2001, London, IPO) – Online ordering service. Take-away only. Went public in 2014.
Takeaway (2000, London, IPO) – Online ordering service for take-away orders. Went public in 2016.
Ele.me (2008, Shanghai, $2.34B) – Online ordering and delivery of food from restaurants with its own logistics network. Backed by Tencent, CitiCapital, Beijing-Hualian, Sequoia Capital etc.
DeliveryHero (2010, Berlin, $1.79B) – Online food ordering service. Backed by Rocket Internet and Insight Ventures.
Discovery
Zomato (2008, Gurgaon, $245M) – Online and mobile restaurant discovery service. Backed by Sequoia.
Ricebook (2012, Beijing, $59M) – Crowd sourced restaurant discovery mobile app. Backed by Sequoia.
Table Booking
Open Table (1998, SF, IPO, Acq) – Online marketplace for restaurant reservation. Offers table-booking management system to restaurant owners. Went public in 2009. Acquired by Priceline in 2014.
BookaTable (2006, London, $63M, Acq) – Real time table booking. Provides marketing, database management and technical support to Restaurants. Acquired Swedish company 2Book in 2014. Backed by Balderton. Acquired by Michelin in 2016.
Quandoo (2012, Berlin, $33M) – Online platform for restaurant reservation platform in Germany. Backed by Recruit Holdings.
Internet First Restaurants
Munchery (2011, SF, $117M) – Internet first gourmet meal delivery service. Backed by Shepra Ventures.
Sprig (2013, SF, $56M) – Mobile based food ordering service (healthy organic meals). Delivery within 15 mins. Backed by Greylock.
Frichti (2015, Paris, $48M) – Internet first restaurant providing meal delivery service. Backed by Verlinvest.
Habit (2015, Emeryville, $32M) – Analyzes DNA to profile nutritional requirement based on which prepares and delivers personalized meals. Backed by Campbell’s Soup.
Recipe Box
Hello Fresh (2012, Berlin, $367M) – Weekly subscription based service that provides 3-4 recipes and related grocery. Sources seasonal and local organic food. Backed by Rocket Internet.
Blue Apron (2012, NYC, $194M) – Delivers meal kits, including pre-measured ingredients and recipes, in refrigerated boxes. Backed by Fidelity.
Plated (2012, NYC, $80M) – Offers a subscription box service that contains meal ingredients and recipes by partnered chefs. Backed by Greycroft.
Snack Box
NatureBox (2012, Berlin, $60M) – Internet first retailer of healthy snacking food products and snack box. Backed by Canaan Partners.
Beverages
Suja (2012, San Diego, $196M) – Brand and online retailer of organic and cold-pressed beverages. Backed by Goldman Sachs.
Lot18 (2010, NYC, $44.5M) – Online retailer of wines and related offerings. Backed by Accel Partners.
Drizly (2012, Boston, $33M) – Mobile marketplace for alcohol delivery. Backed by Polaris Partners.
Novel Foods
Impossible Foods (2011, Redwood City, $183M) – Sustainable food company focusing on plant based meat substitutes. Backed by Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures.
Hampton Creek (2011, SF, $120M) – Food technology company making plant based egg substitutes. Backed by Khosla Ventures.
Soylent (2013, Los Angeles, $74.5M) – Meal replacement product that provides essential nutrients in a serving. Backed by GV.
Ripple Foods (2014, Emeryville, $44M) – Makes dairy free milk and milk based products made from pea protein. Backed by Khosla Ventures.
Hardware and IOT Solutions
Juicero (2013, SF, $90M) – Internet connected counter top device that cold-presses juice out of packs of cut fruits and vegetables. Backed by Artis Ventures.
Coravin (2011, Burlington, $62M) – Designs and markets their technology system that enables access and pouring of wine form a bottle without pulling the cork. Backed by Windham Venture Partners.
Innit (2013, SF, $43M) – A platform that manages and connects food information with appliances and devices.
Enterprise Solutions
Revel Systems (2010, SF, $127M) – Cloud-based POS iPad point of sale solution for restaurants and retail businesses. Backed by Rothenberg Ventures and DCM Ventures.
Tillster (2006, San Diego, $86M) – Offers cloud-based ordering and engagement solution for restaurant industry. Backed by Allegis Capital.
Leaderboard includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.
For latest update, visit FoodTech feed.