Just how excited are investors about the ghost kitchen industry? Well, according to Kitchen United CEO Jim Collins, they are pretty eager. “I think we opened and closed the round in about two days,” said Collins. The outcome of that fervent desire for ghost kitchens across the country had Google Ventures leading a Series A worth $10 million altogether. Filling out the investor pool were original seed investors, which jumped back in, too, executing on their rights as original investors. For Collins, a serial entrepreneur, the excitement for the company […]
Matt Maloney, the CEO of Grubhub, has a reputation for generating his fair share of news and commentary. In a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, he said his $12-billion-plus company has a plan behind its recent acquisitions of LevelUp and Tapingo. In another interesting nugget, he said Grub sees 10 times the order volume with zero delivery fees versus the typical $3 charge to consumers.
Chicago-based Grubhub has acquired campus food ordering Platform Tapingo in a $150 million deal. With more than 150 college campus partners, Tapingo enables order-ahead transactions for more than half a million active diners at on-campus cafes, restaurants and cashier-less stores.
Bloomberg has reported that Uber might be buying Europe’s Deliveroo, a major player in the continent’s third-party delivery landscape. According to the report, Uber Technologies is in talks to plunk down “several billion dollars” for Deliveroo, citing unnamed people familiar with the potential deal.
Postmates is the name of the week when it comes to investments. The third-party delivery provider announced a $300 million investment form Tiger Capital today. According to a press release, the new funds will go toward growth and investments in efficiency. With this funding, Postmates will expand its selection advantage; broaden coverage to over 70% of U.S. households by the end of the year; unleash new point-of-sale integration technologies; deploy state of the art API tools (offering white-glove delivery services to non-brick and mortar retail partners at scale); scale social […]
After attracting a cool $100 million of investor cash to be used to fuel international expansion, the Boston-based ezCater acquired GoCater, a Paris-headquartered corporate catering platform. Shortly after the news broke, we spoke with ezCater Founder Stefania Mallett who said the French acquisition was the first move as the company works to establish further beachheads across Europe. “We have always said we would be international,” she said of the company’s open-book expansion plans. “The people we acquired have proven to be, in just a short time, very capable, very insightful, […]
The fast-growing Middle Eastern concept Naf Naf Grill has been putting a lot of work into its delivery infrastructure and is now open for business.
There are lots of reasons to pay attention to culinary trends coming out of Denmark. First of all: Noma, the restaurant claiming the No.1 restaurant in the world distinction for four years is in Copenhagen, along with three-star Geranium and other Michelin Star Restaurants. Organic and vegetarian options are prominent on most menus and outdoor dining along the canals provides one of the longest bar scenes in the world. Because they bike everywhere—we were told there are two bikes to every person in Copenhagen—Danes build up an appetite for good […]
Feeling a little underpowered? Be careful what you wish for, as a new patent from IBM shows the technology giant wants no yawn left behind as it develops a drone that can detect tired souls and immediately swoop in with a hot cup of coffee. In a patent filed with the U.S. government last month, IBM says coordinating drone-based coffee drops would require a fully autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle connected to an electronic processing circuit that “identifies an individual among the people that may have a predetermined cognitive state based […]
As McDonald’s and Wendy’s continue expanding third-party delivery at a growing number of locations, the mega-chain restaurants are reporting average check sizes 1.5 to two times higher than traditional, dine-in customers according to a new report from Stephens. “We have seen early adopters of third-party delivery attract incremental traffic and penny profits, which we believe is evidence of the pent-up and growing demand for this convenience proposition,” said Stephens Analyst Will Slabaugh. “We believe early successes by most brands are signaling that third-party delivery can be a meaningful piece of […]
