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Bbot Raises $3M for Its Contactless Restaurant Tech Solution

NYC-based restaurant tech company Bbot today announced a $3 million seed funding round led by Craft Ventures. The company says it will use the new funds to hire up and expand its reach and product capabilities, according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

Bbot, which was founded in 2017, was ahead of the times when it originally launched its mobile order and pay platform that emphasizes contactless functionality and minimizes human-to-human contact in restaurants and bars. The system integrates directly with a restaurant or bar’s existing tech setup. Customers use their own phones to scan a QR code (usually placed on a decal on the table) and browse the menu, as well as order and pay for food. 

Bbot points to a number of different advantages with this setup. Most obviously, contactless features in the dining room makes it easier for restaurants to foster social distancing among customers and staff. It also more or less forces restaurants to have at least some digital presence, which is becoming increasingly mandatory these days. Bbot also says the system can increase revenue for the restaurant, and that some of its existing clients have seen a 15 percent lift thanks to the system.

While that’s an encouraging figure, the challenge right now for any restaurant tech is two-fold. First is the sheer amount of competition in the restaurant tech space — particularly when it comes to the consumer-facing side of things. As I said earlier, companies that formerly served the front of house are now racing to find new ways to stay relevant. So far, that’s been through contactless dining kits a la Paytronix, Zuppler, Presto, and many others. 

The other part of the challenge is that the state of restaurant dining rooms remains uncertain, to put it mildly. Some states and/or individual businesses are halting or reversing their reopening plans, thanks to a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases, and businesses are being encouraged to continue their focus off-premises orders.

On that latter note, Bbot has an advantage in that its system is designed to work for any type of restaurant setting, including the off-premises ones. That ability to translate across restaurant formats plus its early entry into the contactless space may give Bbot a greater advantage over the competition, even if dining rooms don’t reopen the way we thought they would.

Kalera to Build the Largest Vertical Farm in Texas

Vertical farming company Kalera announced today that it will open a high-tech facility in Houston, Texas in the spring of 2021. According to today’s press release, this will be the largest vertical farming facility in the state.

The announcement follows recent news that Kalera is also opening a facility in Atlanta, Georgia in 2021. The company already operates one in its hometown of Orlando, Florida.

Over the last couple years, Kalera has made a name for itself supplying greens grown via vertical farms to the hospitality sector. As of the end of last year, the company’s HyCube system was supplying the Orlando World Center Mariott resort with greens, and had plans with several grocery retailers and restaurants. It opened a second facility in Orlando in March of this year.

Then, as so many narratives go these days, the pandemic hit, and it’s a little hard to service produce to restaurants that are closed down. So Kalera struck a deal with Publix to sell its greens at 165 of the grocery retailer’s stores. 

“We were very fortunate to be able to quickly pivot and focus more on the retail side and benefit from the slowdown.,” Kalera CEO Daniel Malechuk told me over the phone in April, at the time of this pivot. 

The company didn’t name grocery specifically in today’s release, but given the current situation in Texas around COVID-19, retail seems a more likely destination than restaurants for greens coming out of Kalera’s new facility. Once open, the new site will be able to service not only the Houston area but also Dallas-Ft. Worth, San Antonio, Austin, and New Orleans. 

Kalera’s high-tech vertical farming system uses IoT, data analytics, AI-powered process automation and cleanroom technology in its facilities to monitor plant growth and create the optimal recipe of lights, nutrients, and water for crops. Right now, the company grows leafy greens, which Malechuk said in April take less time to transport. “Other produce and fruit is probably extremely cost prohibitive in dense urban settings and situations,” he said.

The last few weeks have seen a surge of news in vertical and indoor farming, both in commercial-scale farming and at-home devices. AppHarvest has partnered with the Dutch government to turn the Appalachian region of Kentucky into something of an indoor farming powerhouse. Farmshelf launched its first-ever at-home vertical farming until for consumers. And SinGrow, a Singapore-based company that actually is trying to grow more than leafy greens, is getting a lot of attention of late for its proprietary strawberries and vertical farming tech.

Kalera said in today’s release that the Houston facility is just one in a string of planned locations around the U.S. and the rest of the world.

NPD: As QSR Transactions Improve, Full-Service Restaurants Continue to Struggle

Consumer transactions at restaurants have seen some improvement in the last couple weeks compared to the early days of the pandemic, though not much of it has gone beyond the quick-service restaurant.

NPD released new data today that notes consumer transactions at major U.S. restaurant chains declined 10 percent compared to one year ago for the week ending July 5. That’s a slight uptick from the previous week’s decline of 14 percent. 

However, NPD notes that “all of the improvement in the week sources to major quick service restaurant chains, where customer transaction declines improved by 4 points from the prior week’s decline of 13 percent versus year ago.”

That QSRs are seeing the bulk of the improvements shouldn’t surprise. The QSR format is inherently designed to better serve off-premises orders than full-service dine-in restaurants. Even before the pandemic and shelter-in-place mandates upset the entire industry, QSRs were accelerating their efforts to offer more pickup, delivery, and drive-thru capabilities. Starbucks, for example, has said 80 percent of its orders were already to-go before the pandemic. And a large portion of Chipotle’s business has for more than a year now been dedicated to building out off-premises-friendly store formats and developing a robust digital ordering strategy. 

Chipotle is a good illustration of how much more quickly and nimbly many QSRs were able to act in the wake of the pandemic compared full-service restaurants. Once social distancing measures went into effect, the chain simply accelerated its existing efforts around off-premises and digital ordering. The result was that Chipotle recorded its highest quarter ever for digital sales in Q1 2020. 

The last few months have been a much harder haul for full-service restaurants. NPD reported this week that full service restaurants saw customer transactions down -30 percent compared to one year ago, which is a five-point decline from the previous week. 

Author and NPD food industry advisor David Portalatin said that “full-service performance remains largely at the mercy of governmental regulation and the persistence of the coronavirus. For many full-serves, making the pivot to off-premise is far more difficult.”

As of right now, many would-be restaurant customers are still wary of actually sitting down in a dining room to eat a meal. The current spike on coronavirus cases across the U.S. also complicates matters, since some states have had to halt or roll back their reopening plans.

These challenges aren’t going to let up anytime soon, unfortunately. In all likelihood, nobody will be dining out en masse until a vaccine is found and widely administered. By then, consumer behaviors may have shifted to off-premises orders so heavily many people may not want to eat out, at least not on a regular basis. That will present a whole new bucket of challenges for restaurants and restaurant tech companies alike.

GROW Accelerator Unveils the 12 Companies Picked for Its Singapore Food Bowl Program

Singapore Food Bowl, a food-focused startup program backed by AgFunder’s GROW accelerator, today announced the 12 startups chosen for its first-ever cohort. While those companies vary in terms of what they do and offer, all of them are working towards the same underlying goal: to build a more sustainable food system that’s more decentralized and able to stand up to unexpected, unprecedented crises like COVID-19. 

That’s an especially urgent goal in Singapore, a country that relies on imports for about 90 percent of its food. To address this, the Singapore government recently created the 30 by 30 initiative, where the city-state aims to have 30 percent of its food grown locally by 2030. Reaching that goal will require a substantial amount of food tech and alternative farming methods, since Singapore has very little in the way of arable land. 

Hence, programs like Singapore Food Bowl which is tied to the 30 by 30 initiative and also supported by Enterprise Singapore and Dole Packaged Foods. 

John Friedman, director at GROW and AgFunder Asia, said in today’s announcement that the program is “providing a platform not only to accelerate innovation in the local agrifood tech ecosystem, but also to raise awareness across broader society of the need for transformation and greater sustainability throughout our food system.”

AgFunder unveiled the 12 chosen startups this morning: 

  • Augmentus: A code-free robotics automation platform built for use in settings like urban farming
  • CocoPallet: Makes shipping pallets from byproducts of coconut farming for use in the global logistics industry
  • Crust Group: Uses leftover bread from hotels, restaurants, and cafes to create craft beers and other beverages
  • DiMuto: Uses internet-of-things and blockchain to digitize the supply chain for better visibility for both suppliers and customers
  • Fortuna Cools: Uses coconut husks to make a cheaper and biodegradable alternative to traditional iceboxes
  • Invertigro: A modular indoor farming system with specialized crop recipes companies can integrate into their existing business models
  • ListenField: An IoT-enabled app that gives farmers actionable data on crop and climate analysis
  • Lleaf: Developing a polymer film that can be applied to greenhouse panels to increase crop yields
  • Mi Terro: Turns spoiled milk into an odorless, temperature-regulating fabric that can be used for clothes, bedding, and food packaging.
  • Organic Technology Holdings: Repurposes organic waste for pet foods, aquafeed, flavor additives, and health supplements
  • SingCell: Provides biotech development and manufacturing services to help cultured meat companies get to market faster.
  • Smoocht: A “r’ice cream” maker that uses organic brown rice milk to make plant-based desserts

Given the state of the pandemic, the 12-week program is completely virtual. It’s in session right now and will run through mid-September.

The Sustainable Restaurant Needs Big Chains Right Now

A worrying point that comes up a lot in conversation these days is that sustainability has taken something of a backseat while food businesses scramble to fight the pandemic. So it was encouraging to read this week that burger chain behemoth McDonald’s is continuing its sustainability initiatives and just completed construction on its first “net zero energy-designed restaurant.” 

An email sent to The Spoon this week outlines what this “net zero energy” restaurant looks like in practice. The store is located on the Disney World property in Orlando, Florida. Among other things, it includes a solar-paneled roof, photovoltaic glass panels around the building, and an automated energy system and passive ventilation dining-room to circulate air and regulate temperature. There are also interactive elements, such as stationary bikes that produce electricity and tablet games for kids to learn more about sustainability.

But hold on. Said bikes and tablets aren’t available just yet. McDonald’s said in its email that the new location is open for drive-thru and delivery, but like other McDonald’s stores in the U.S., its dining room remains closed. Florida being one of the new coronavirus hotspots, this will probably be the case for some time.

The biggest takeaway here, though, is not about the tech-forward energy systems in place or even the giant Golden Arches made of shrubbery (see photo). It’s that McDonald’s pushing forward on sustainability initiatives is even more important right now, during a pandemic, than it would have been a year ago.

Why, you ask? Because at the moment, the restaurant industry is collapsing around us. Data from OpenTable recently suggested that one in four restaurants will go out of business permanently because of coronavirus shutdowns. For the ones that remain open or plan to open, the majority of them are struggling to even pay the rent. One can’t reasonably expect them to also use what little margins they have to develop ways to make the restaurant biz less damaging to the planet. 

But someone’s gotta do it. Otherwise we’re going to emerge from this pandemic only to find ourselves buried in an inescapable pile of to-go containers and with no clear plan on how to make sustainability cheaper and easier for all restaurants. 

That means big chains with billion-plus-dollar digital businesses must continue their sustainability initiatives, pandemic or no. Just like Amazon will invariably influence other, smaller e-commerce retailers, the moves massive chains like McDonald’s, Starbucks, etc. take always have at least some effect on the smaller restaurant players. If the pandemic ever subsides enough to let some of the dust from the fallout settle, a lot of businesses are going to need help pulling their sustainability goals back on track. Those that can afford to need to start writing that playbook now.

Uber Had a Busy Week

On Monday, Uber announced it was buying Postmates for $2.65 billion. The delivery service quickly followed that news with an announcement that it is also is starting grocery delivery in the U.S. as well as parts of Latin America and Canada through its stake in Cornershop. 

Put ‘em together and whad’ya got? A lot more competition for Uber to contend with. 

The pandemic has blurred some lines between grocery and restaurant over the last couple months. But each sector still undoubtedly has its major players. In the world of restaurant food delivery, that includes DoorDash, which still holds the largest marketshare in the U.S. It also includes Grubhub, which Uber tried to acquire but who instead got snapped up by Just Eat Takeaway.com. Combined, Grubub and Just Eat Takeaway.com will form the largest food delivery service in the world outside of China.

Over in grocery, Instacart has raised over $2 billion, and the Big Big guys like Amazon and Walmart have robust online grocery services that got many folks through the pandemic.

Uber’s simultaneous moves to expand its reach with Eats as well as diversify with grocery speak to the boost the company is trying to give its food business now that the pandemic has decimated its rideshare business. Uber posted a loss of $2.94 billion for the first quarter of 2020 and also cut staff in the recent past. But its Eats business is growing, according to first-quarter numbers. The Postmates acquisition will give Eats a bigger footprint in key cities like Los Angeles (where Postmates is the number one service). Meanwhile, online grocery is still in high demand, and with coronavirus cases still hitting new records, that demand is unlikely to change anytime soon. Now we’ll have to see if Uber can handle the competition in both the grocery and food delivery sectors.

Automation’s Next Stop? The Ghost Kitchen

Two things the restaurant industry will see more of in the near future: ghost kitchens and automation. And if The Spoon’s fireside chat yesterday is any indication, we’ll see more of both in the same place.

Yesterday, Spoon Editor Chris Albrecht discussed the state of restaurant robotics with Linda Poulliot, CEO of Dischcraft Robotics, and Clatyon Wood, CEO of Picnic. While the group covered a wide range of topics in terms of when and how we’ll see robots in the restaurant, one of the most interesting takeaways was that these machines could speed up the order fulfillment process for many businesses while also ensuring a higher level of sanitization and better ways to keep workers in the kitchen socially distanced. 

Wood, who indicated the ghost kitchen market is a lucrative one for robotics right now, at one point suggested a hub-and-spoke model where a machine like Picnic’s could prep food in a central kitchen before sending it out to smaller ghost kitchen operations for final fulfillment of orders. 

My bet is that we’ll see more of this kind of efficiency in the near future. While they would never work in a fine-dining setting, where the experience is as much about the food preparation as it is the food, this utilitarian approach to food prep makes sense for quick-service restaurants and delivery-only concepts that are all about making fast food faster.

You can tune into the video from the event by heading over to Spoon Plus. Members get access to this and past fireside chats, as well as premium reports, interviews and exclusive research.  

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Euromonitor: Ghost Kitchens Poised to Become a $1T Market by 2030

Ghost kitchens could become a $1 trillion market by 2030, according to a Euromonitor webinar from this week (h/t Restaurant Dive). 

The webinar was led by Michael Schaefer, the Global Lead for Food & Beverage at Euromonitor International. During the webinar, he noted that “we’re going to see a lot of new operators looking to fill the void with cheaper concepts . . . more delivery-friendly concepts that require less capital up front.”

Via a series of slides and commentary, Schaefer notes that “global foodservice delivery sales more than doubled from 2014 to 2019” and that 52 percent of global consumers are “comfortable ordering from a delivery-only restaurant (no physical outlet).” The pandemic, too, has made the market for ghost kitchens even more lucrative than it was at the beginning of 2020. 

With most restaurants having now been more or less forced into building out off-premises strategies, ghost kitchens provide in many cases a faster, cheaper way to fulfill things like delivery orders. An accompanying slide the webinar breaks down just how much of the restaurant segment ghost kitchens could potentially capture:

  • 50 percent of drive-thru ($75 billion)
  • 50 percent of takeout ($250 billion)
  • 25 percent of dine-in ($450 billion)

That said, ghost kitchens are “one step” in an ongoing evolution, according to Schaefer. “As more and more of the foodservice environment becomes optimized for delivery, a generation of consumers growing up with smartphones becomes accustomed and habituated to being able to order literally anything from their smartphone. That is going to drive ever-more innovation,” he said.

That innovation will in all likelihood touch every aspect of the restaurant experience, from how food gets from kitchen to customer to the types of foods prepared to the underlying technology powering operations. Ghost kitchens are getting a ton of press right now because of the role they could play in helping restaurants keep the lights on as the pandemic wreaks havoc on traditional dining rooms. But, as this week’s webinar suggests, it’s important to remember that things are just getting started as far as ghost kitchens are concerned. 

Report: Plant-based Meat Sales Increased 23 Percent When Sold Next to Real Meat

Sales of plant-based meat products increased 23 percent when those products were sold in the same department as traditional meat, according to a newly released study from the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA) and Kroger.

The study ran from December 2019 to February 2020 in 60 Kroger test stores across three states: Colorado, Illinois, and Indiana. Plant-based meat products were placed “in a three-foot set within the meat department,” according to the study. 

Results varied by region. In the Midwest stores, where widespread adoption of plant-based meat is only just beginning to catch, sales were up 32 percent. Stores in the Denver, CO area, which the study says “already had a high concentration of plant-based consumers,” saw a 13 percent increase.

Other notable stats from the study include:

  • Shoppers purchasing a wider variety of plant-based meats increased by 33%
  • Shoppers increased their number of purchase occasions by 34%.

This rise in purchases of plant-based meat products isn’t too surprising, given the recent overall spike in demand. But retailers are still determining which section of the grocery store plant-based meat products belong in, and depending on where you go, they could be int he vegan section, with the organic meat products, or with regular ol’ Big Meat. 

Despite demand, plant-based companies have gotten pushback over the last year or so from Big Meat over labeling their products as “meat.” In 2019, the PBFA actually sued Mississippi over the state’s restrictive labeling rules, which originally prevented plant-based meat companies from using terms like “burger” or “hot dog.” Those laws were overturned in Mississippi, but Arkansas, Missouri, and other states have passed similar legislation. What labeling laws are in any given state will inevitably affect where plant-based products wind up in the grocery store.

Of course the debate of where to put plant-based meats may be rendered less important if current trends in grocery shopping continue. Online shopping is still popular, and the uptick in coronavirus cases may ensure it stays high for some time longer. At the same time, leading plant-based meat companies like Impossible and Beyond have launched or are planning to launch direct-to-consumer sites. Though to be honest, you’d have to be a pretty dedicated fan of those products to take the time to buy in bulk directly. For plant-based meat companies looking to reach newer flexitarians and casually curious consumers, the grocery store aisle — and specifically the meat aisle — remains their best bet.

Karana Raises $1.7M to Develop ‘Pork’ Products From Jackfruit

Singapore-based Karana announced today it has closed a $1.7 million seed round to further develop its plant-based meat products, the first of which are derived from jackfruit. The round was led by Big Idea Ventures, Monde Nissin Corp CEO Henry Soesanto, and Germi8, along with angel investors Kevin Poon and Gerald Li.

Karana says it will use the funding to launch its pork product made from jackfruit in restaurants in Asia, and to further its research and development around jackfruit and other plants as meat substitutes. 

Jackfruit makes a good alternative ingredient for pork products because it can be cooked and shredded like the real thing. If prepared the right way, it can mimic the textures of pork (or in some cases chicken), which is a key element to get right when it comes to plant-based proteins. The plant is native to India and also grows in Southeast Asia, Mexico, and South America. 

Karana says it uses a proprietary “innovative mechanical technique” to process the fruit, while retaining its nutritional profile and other health benefits. In other words, Karana’s products aren’t as highly processed as, say Impossible’s “bleeding” burgers or Beyond’s patties.

Karana cofounder Blair Crichton made mention of that point to AgFunder today, saying, “There are plenty of consumers — myself included — that really like those other products on the market, but don’t want to eat a heavily processed burger or sausage every day.” Substitutes derived from jackfruit are one possible alternative.

Karana’s funding announcement lands in what’s been a very busy week for alternative proteins. Since Tuesday of this week, cell-based meat companies IntegriCulture and Shiok Meats announced a new partnership, Motif FoodWorks said it is doubling down on its quest to find the perfect alt-meat texture, and fake chicken company NUGGS raised $4.1 million. In the alt-dairy space, Perfect Day made its own funding announcement, the expansion of its Series C round to $300 million. Meanwhile, sales of plant-based meat in general have gone up since the start of the pandemic, thanks in no small part to meat shortage scares and panic shopping sprees.

Karana’s choice of plant-based pork as its first product is a wise bet. Pork is the most widely consumed meat in Asia, but between the aforementioned pandemic-induced problems with meat supply and calls from Asian governments to cut meat consumption, the time is ripe for plant-based alternatives.

Updated: DoorDash Did Not Violate the SF Commission Fee Cap for Restaurants

UPDATE 07/09 at 6:03 EST:

A representative from DoorDash sent the following statement to The Spoon: “We have corrected a separate error affecting fewer than 10 out of over a thousand of our SF restaurant partners and will be issuing reimbursements to these restaurants.”

UPDATE 07/09 at 5:37 EST:

San Francisco chef Christian Ciscle, who originally surfaced news suggesting DoorDash had violated San Francisco’s 15 percent cap on restaurant commission fees, sent an update this afternoon via Twitter: 

“UPDATE: Doordash called around 5:30- I fucked up. While the Merchant Info STILL said 30%, they were actually only taking 15% when I looked at the invoice. They never responded to my emails about it from weeks ago. But, hopefully those “10” Restaurants will get reimbursed.”

The Spoon has reached out to DoorDash for clarification and will post another update in the event of new information on this story.

PREVIOUSLY:

DoorDash looks to have violated the 15 percent cap the city of San Francisco put in place in April for the commission fees delivery services charge restaurants. Some businesses have reported getting charged unexpected 30 percent commission fees from the third-party delivery service after the caps went in place, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. 

DoorDash told the Chronicle that the charges were a mistake and that it will reimburse restaurants affected by said mistake. According to the delivery service, fewer than 10 restaurants were impacted, and those restaurants will be reimbursed.

However, Christian Ciscle, a San Francisco chef, said he had not been notified of any reimbursements “despite multiple calls to DoorDash.” 

Ciscle was the one to shed light on the issue via a screenshot posted to Twitter:

Normally (read: no pandemic), the commission fees services like DoorDash charge restaurants can reach as high as 30 percent per transaction, a point that’s been an ongoing problem in the world of restaurant delivery. When the pandemic shuttered dining rooms around the country this spring, the problem became a major focal point in the debate over the ethics of third-party delivery. 

San Francisco isn’t the only city to have introduced mandatory fee caps for delivery services. New York, Seattle, Chicago, and several others made similar moves in the recent past. Most of these fee caps are set to last so long as cities remain under emergency states due to COVID-19. That could be a while longer, given the record-setting number of cases the U.S. is now seeing.

DoorDash should absolutely pay back restaurants involved. However, let’s hold off a bit before we herald fee caps as the thing that will keep third-party delivery practices in check. They won’t. They’re necessary to some degree while restaurants are forced to do delivery and off-premises orders. But they’re still just a bandage on a much larger ailment, which is the convenience-driven, gig-economy-reliant model on which third-party delivery is built. Until some of delivery’s more fundamental issues, including the glaringly unprofitable nature of the model, are addressed, fee caps are just one in the crowd when it comes to problems for restaurants.

Shake Shack Will Teach You How to Run a Lemonade Stand This Summer

Shake Shack, the same chain that recently brought us DIY meal kits and to-go-only stores, this week introduced what’s maybe it’s weirdest pandemic offering yet: summer camp in a box.

Dubbed the Shack Camp Box, the kit contains a bunch of supplies with which to do craft-y activities, including food-related ones. The brand will run a virtual camp via its Instagram channel where folks can follow along through the summer. Build your own lemonade stand (complete with prompts on how to run a business), create ice cream sundaes, and other activities are on the agenda. The “camp” website also notes $75 worth of exclusive offers as a perk, so there’s doubtless some Shake Shack grub thrown into the mix, too.

Considering the various and strange ways restaurants are currently employing to connect with customers they can’t serve in dining rooms, a box of glorified swag doesn’t actually seem that outlandish. For those with kids, it might actually prove useful, since many summer camps have been cancelled and more kids are staying at home this year. 

There’s also a philanthropic angle to it, which means it’s hard to get too cynical here. The campaign supports The Fresh Air Fund’s virtual summer program that brings virtual camp activities to underserved children in NYC.

The Shack Camp Box is available as of today. Each box includes six activities and goes for $79 via the Shack Camp’s site. Corresponding Instagram videos start on July 13.

Shake Shack needs as much customer connection as it can get right now. Despite its efforts around improving its off-premises strategy during lockdown, the chain reported this week that second-quarter sales were down 49 percent as a result of both the pandemic and nationwide protests. In a business report released Tuesday, the company noted that “Shack sales were estimated to be negatively impacted by approximately $3.2 million in the fiscal period June due to nationwide protest activity and resulting curfews causing temporary Shack closures and reduced operating hours.”

The company has also had to re-close some stores because of the rise in coronavirus cases of late.

Virtual summer camp won’t be able to fix all the brand’s problems, but it is another example of a restaurant trying to redefine what the restaurant experience means, both right now and for the future. 

Fare Launches ‘Ethical’ Delivery Service in NYC With Zero Commission Fees for Restaurants

Restaurant delivery service Fare, which calls itself “an ethical and fair alternative” to third-party delivery, today announced its official launch in NYC. The company’s number one claim to fame right now is that it charges restaurants zero commission fees on orders because of its more local approach to food delivery.

Fare works with local restaurants around NYC, curating a menu of available options for customers to choose from based on their neighborhood. Given that, customers get a much more limited number of options to pick from each day compared to, say, Grubhub or Uber Eats. The company claims to taste-test every single menu that goes onto its site. It also says, via its FAQs, that if a restaurant’s food quality starts to slip, Fare will remove their menus from its site.

The service differs from third-party delivery apps in that orders need to be placed in advance, usually on the day before, through the Fare website. There is no minimum for orders. Fare then groups orders together by neighborhood, block, or building, and the restaurant drops the order off at each customer’s door within a designated 1-hour timeframe. 

Having the restaurant drop the order off itself is how Fare gets around charging businesses commission fees — which, as we’ve documented ad nauseam, can be as high as 30 percent per transaction with the major third-party delivery services. To make money on orders, the company says it charges customers a small service fee.

Fare’s localized approach to delivery is definitely an attractive option for smaller restaurants that primarily serve customers in their immediate vicinity and may not have the money to ink a deal with Grubhub. For customers, it might not be as convenient as using a major third-party delivery service, since orders have to be placed ahead of time and food choices are limited. The real acid test will probably be the convenience factor, which seems to drive everything in the restaurant industry nowadays. Will consumers be willing to sacrifice some of the “on-demand” aspects of food delivery to get a cheaper meal and ensure restaurants aren’t getting gauged with commission fees? The jury, as they say, is still out.

Fare is currently operating in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. 

Aquaponics Company Seed & Roe Rebrands as Upward Farms, Announces $15M in Fresh Funding

Seed & Roe, an indoor farming and aquaponics company, announced today it has rebranded as Upward Farms and plans to build a new headquarter farm in Brooklyn, NY to increase production of both leafy greens and fish. Today’s announcement also comes just as the company has closed a $15 million funding round led by Prime Movers Lab. The company has raised $20 million total to date.

The company, which was called Edenworks before it was Seed & Roe, said in today’s release that it plans to open its Brooklyn facility in 2020 and increase production by more than 20x its original facility (also located in Brooklyn). 

That production includes both leafy greens and fish — striped bass, specifically. The forthcoming facility will farm these fish, which it says will be available to those in the New York area by 2021. Keeping the entire operation something of a closed loop, the water produced by fish feeds (which is nutrient-enriched) then goes on to feed the plants in the facility’s greenery. 

Upward Farms provided this handy diagram of the new facility to explain its operations:

It’s approach to indoor farming is somewhat unique in that most companies aren’t yet combining indoor vertical farming with any other type of farming. Though there is plenty of activity currently in the vertical farming space, thanks in no small part to the pandemic surfacing the many insufficiencies of our current food supply chain. Also this week, Hong Kong-based Aspara launched its high-tech indoor farm for consumers in the U.S. Over in Singapore, the government has allocated more than $40 million (USD) to aid agtech and aquaculture startups grow more food locally. Finally, here in the U.S. South, AppHarvest is building a vertical farming powerhouse to feed the Appalachian region.

Because of its Brooklyn location, Upward Farms will service consumers in the New York area for now, including Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. The company plans to expand in the future, though a timeframe is not yet clear.