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May 21, 2019

Newsletter: The Spoon’s Food Tech 25 Is Here. So Is the Battle for the Drive-Thru.

This the post edition of our newsletter. To get the Weekly Spoon delivered to your inbox, subscribe here. 

One of my favorite things about tech is that it starts a lot of debate. Even within our small team here at The Spoon, we’re constantly on different pages about what’s groundbreaking and what’s just hype, whether something’s progressive or just invasive, how to spell the phrase “food tech.”

So when it came time to put together our annual Food Tech 25 list, which dropped yesterday, you can bet it took a whole lot of discussion to whittle the entire food industry down to just 25 companies.

As we always do, though, the Spoon team — Mike Wolf, Chris Albrecht, Catherine Lamb, and myself — managed to compile a list of companies we individually and collectively, believe are truly impacting the human relationship to food. That impact takes many forms, from the way Creator makes it possible for humans and robots to coexist in the kitchen to Yo-Kai’s vending machine of the future to Goodr’s efforts to use tech to keep food out of the trash and redistribute it to those in need.

I’m hoping readers enjoy this list, but I’m also hoping it sparks some healthy dispute, too. Who else should be on the list? For that matter, who shouldn’t, and why? We encourage you to email us with any additions, subtractions, rants and raves on the matter.

And, most important, congratulations to the companies who made it on this list!

Image via Unsplash.

Drive-Thru Tech Moves Into the Fast Lane

One area of food tech that’s going to raise many more questions over the next few years is the QSR drive-thru. Specifically, how AI is changing the drive-thru and what that means for both restaurant operators and customers.

We’ve been following closely the story behind McDonald’s acquisition of Dynamic Yield, a New Zealand-based AI company whose tech has already been rolled out to almost 1,000 Mickey D’s drive-thru lanes. Then, this week, Clinc, best known for its work in the financial sector, announced a new funding round that will allow the company to expand into other markets with QSR drive-thrus at the top of the list.

Clinc’s using AI-powered voice controls to facilitate more natural conversation between the customer and the ordering system in the hopes of making the drive-thru experience smoother and faster. Drive-thru order times are much longer than they used to be, and companies are betting AI will speed up the order process by making it more accurate and also making more personalized recommendations, like immediately suggesting a pastry to someone when they place their morning coffee order. There are even companies working on making those recommendations not just in real time but also based on existing customer data. One such company is 5thru, which does away with voice altogether by scanning your license plate number, which is attached to a profile stored with the restaurant and can make real-time recommendations based on your existing preferences and order history attached to that license plate number. Cue progressive-versus-creepy debate.

Join the Conversation at The Spoon’s New Food Tech Fireside Event

As much as we value the sound of our own voices over here, though, we actually want to hear more from readers on their thoughts around tech. That’s why we started a new online event, The Spoon’s Food Tech Firesides. Every month, we’ll hold a virtual sit down with one or two food industry innovators and invite the audience to join in the talk via written questions.

First up will be Tessa Price of WeWork Food Labs and Peter Bodenheimer from Food-X talking about food accelerators: what they are, what they’re not, and which companies and entrepreneurs should consider them as a path towards growth.

The event takes place May 30 at 10:00 a.m. PDT/1:00 p.m. EDT. Catch the full details here, and be sure to register early, as there’s limited space available.

May your week be filled with lively debate.

Onwards,

Jenn

May 21, 2019

Join Us for a Live Talk With WeWork Food Labs’ Tessa Price and Food-X’s Peter Bodenheimer

Part of our daily routine here at The Spoon includes a lot of chats with food innovators bringing their new tech and ideas to market and in the process changing the way we eat.

In fact, we get so much good intel from these conversations we decided it’s time to open the dialogue and invite our readers to participate. That’s the goal behind Food Tech Firesides, our new online event series devoted to conversations with food tech experts about the most important topics in food innovation happening right now. Each month, we’ll “sit down” with one or two individuals contributing to the food community through their companies and innovations. Readers are invited to dial in, listen, and even post their questions in real time for the panelists answer.

We’re kicking off this series on May 30 at 10:00 a.m. PDT/1:00 p.m. EDT (Note: You can now listen to this conversation here in the form of a podcast). For this inaugural event, we’ll be talking food tech accelerators — what they are (versus, say, incubators), who they’re for, and what companies & founders can expect to get out of them.

Joining us will be Tessa Price, Lab Manager at the newly launched WeWork Food Labs and Peter Bodenheimer, Program Director at Food-X, one of the countries top food startup accelerators.

Food-X’s Peter Bodenheimer (left) and Tessa Price of WeWork Food Labs will lead the conversation.

Tessa leads programming for WeWork Food Labs, which she joined after a stint as program director for Pilotworks, the shared-kitchen startup that shut down in late 2018. She’s also done concept development work for a number of NYC restaurants, including Le Pain Quotidien and Taim.

As Partner and Program Director for Food-X, Peter handles the design and execution of the Food-X program, which recruiting, due diligence, program delivery, managing fundraising activities. His career in the food industry spans more than 20 years, including co-founding and leading business operations for Flatstack. He also cofounded the coworking space Launch Pad, as well as Launch Pad Ignition, the first startup accelerator in the Southeast U.S. He also built and launched BarNotes, a social discover platform for cocktail lovers.

You can join our first Food Tech Fireside by registering here (Note: You can now listen to this episode in the form of a podcast). Space is limited for this event, so sign up now to ensure your spot in the conversation.

May 17, 2019

Forget IPOs. DoorDash Is the One to Watch Right Now in Third-Party Delivery

Grubhub still leads the third-party food delivery market in terms of sales, and of late, Postmates and Uber Eats have gotten a lot of attention for their respective pre- and post-IPO news. But DoorDash may well be the most important company to watch in the escalating showdown for third-party delivery dominance, according to new data from tech company Second Measure.

Second Measure analyzes anonymized credit card transactions and uses that data to shed light on customer behaviors. In the world of third-party delivery, those behaviors underscore the rapid growth DoorDash has undergone recently, growth that has the company almost on equal footing with Grubhub in terms of monthly sales. Grubhub leads the market, with 32 percent of total monthly sales. But the company’s growth is now slower than its competitors, as evidenced in the following graph:

Source: Second Measure

DoorDash, meanwhile, holds 30 percent of the market in terms of monthly sales, and unlike Grubhub, it’s still growing rapidly. In February 2019, DoorDash closed a $400,000 million round and had a valuation of $7.1 billion. Besides investors, Second Measure notes in its report that DoorDash saw “a staggering 216-percent year-over-year jump [in sales], compared to 58 percent at Uber Eats and 4 percent at Grubhub.”

Part of those rising sales numbers are no doubt due to DoorDash’s aggressive push across the country. The service is the only third-party delivery service right now to be in all 50 U.S. states, in case you couldn’t tell from the endless numbers of promotions and partnerships the company does with everyone from Canter’s Deli in LA to Taco Bell to the Wyndham Hotels chain. The service is also now in 50 Canadian cities.

Impressive as the numbers are, no one’s place in the third-party delivery market seems certain because the space changes so rapidly — something that will continue for the rest of 2019 and beyond. DoorDash will have to work hard at retaining its customers if it wants to keep up. And as Second Measure and others have noted, loyalty to any one service isn’t something third-party delivery customers prioritize. For example, in the first quarter of 2017, 88 percent of Grubhub’s customers didn’t use another service; two years later, that number has dropped to 62 percent.

Unless, that is, you’re in the south. It seems of all the third-party delivery services out there, Waitr, who’s business is more focused on second-tier U.S. cities, has the highest number of loyal customers on the list. Waitr (who recently acquired Bite Squad) doesn’t (yet) have the reach or growth rate of DoorDash, but focusing on customer loyalty in cities that aren’t New York, LA, or other major metropolises could eventually be hugely advantageous. DoorDash should take note.

May 15, 2019

Hybrid VC Firm Big Idea Ventures Wants to Scale the Alternative Protein Revolution

We hear a lot about plant-based startups raking in big funding dollars — cough, Impossible Foods, cough — but not a lot about the companies investing in them.

One such company working to fund the alternative protein revolution is Big Idea Ventures (BIV). Helmed by Andrew Ive, formerly of food innovation accelerator Food-X, Big Idea Ventures is a hybrid venture firm with a VC arm and accelerator program.

It tore onto the scene a few weeks ago when it closed its first fund: the New Protein Fund, which now stands at roughly $50 million. “It’s the first and largest plant-based accelerator fund,” Ive told me over the phone last week.

The fund is backed by giants like Tyson Foods and Temasek, the Singaporean government’s VC arm. It will focusing heavily on plant-based protein startups, Ive said they’re are allocating 5 to 10 percent of their money for cell-based endeavors.

That makes it all the more interesting that they chose to make their first investment cultured shrimp company Shiok Meats. Ive told me that they were drawn in by the Singaporean startup’s product focus: crustaceans. He believes that the flavor and texture of cultured shrimp will be easier to commercialize than, say, beef or chicken. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it is impressive that Shiok Meats, which is less than a year old, has already done an (apparently successful) taste test of its minced “shrimp” in dumpling form.

BIV is also launching physical accelerator programs in two locations: New York City (to launch in Q3) and Singapore (to launch in Q4). Mike Lightman, Managing Partner of BIV, told me that they plan to accept 8 to 10 companies per cohort and do two cohorts per year. All accepted startups will receive $250,000 in funding, a space to work, and mentorship from their entrepreneurs in residence in exchange for a convertible note. Once the program is over, BIV will allocate $1 to $3 million among the top-performing companies. Over the next four years, Ive said that BIV is hoping to back around 100 companies.

In a lot of ways, this accelerator follows the typical script: young startups get funding and advice in exchange for a portion of their company. But BIV’s program diverges in a few ways. Firstly, it’s five months long as opposed to the more traditional three-month programs like Y Combinator and Food-X, which Ive found was too short to really help a company grow. BIV also has a full kitchen in their accelerator space, so startups can actually work on developing/scaling their products in-house. Finally, with their dual presence in Asia and the U.S. (with plans to expand into Europe sometime in the future), Lightman also noted that they can help reduce opportunity costs for entrepreneurs by giving them ready access to multiple markets.

BIV is entering the scene at a time when every major company and their mother seems to be launching a new accelerator. For mega CPG companies, like General Mills, Danone, and Kraft-Heinz, they’re a relatively easy way to discover new companies for acquisition and keep a finger on the pulse of what’s new and “hip.”

With this in mind, it’s not hard to see why Tyson and Temasek want to get in on an alternative protein accelerator.

Tyson has set out to become the number one provider of protein, no matter the source. It has invested widely in both plant-based and cell-based meat companies, including Memphis Meats, FutureMeat, and, up until recently, Beyond Meat. They’re also developing their own line of plant-based proteins set to launch this summer. Through their involvement in the BIV accelerator, Tyson will have access to a wide range of innovative new alternative protein companies, which they can try to acquire or just use to gain inspiration.

For Temasek’s part, Singapore has been quite progressive in pushing for innovation the alt-protein space. Through its new RIE2020 plan, the city-state will invest over $100 million in foodtech endeavors like cultured meat and microbial protein production. Temasek can use BIV’s cohorts to attract promising new alt-protein startups to Asia; which we’ve already predicted will be a hotbed for cell-based meat.

TL;DR: If you’re curious about what new companies are shaking up the alternative protein space, keep an eye on what Big Idea Ventures is up to. Another good way to stay up to date is to subscribe to our Future Food newsletter! You’ll get a weekly dose of in-depth analysis on the plant-based and cultured protein landscape.

If you’ve got a plant- or cell-based startup of your own, you can apply for BIV’s inaugural accelerator program here.

May 14, 2019

Coca-Cola, Danone, General Mills Join a Major New Foodtech Hub in China

Major CPGs have been on a mission to keep pace with new food trends by partnering with younger companies via startup accelerators and incubators. Now they’re taking the concept to China, where Shanghai-based VC firm Bits x Bites has teamed with the likes of Coca-Cola, Danone, and General Mills, as well as multinational biotech firms and agricultural companies, to launch the China Food Tech Hub.

The Hub’s mission is to further the foodtech industry in China and strengthen a dialogue between older, established players and younger, smaller startups which are more in-tune to emerging trends and technologies. “By working with the startup and corporate community through the China Food Tech Hub, we want to contribute to further build the food tech ecosystem in a collaborative way, feed our innovation needs and identify new project opportunities in China,” David Machiels, R&I Director Asia Expansion and Innovation Acceleration at Danone, said in a press release sent out.

For huge corporations and CPGs like Danone, the China Food Tech Hub is also a way to stay relevant and hang on to their customer bases. Thanks to food preferences largely driven by Millennials, more consumers want things like transparency around ingredients, organic and/or natural foods, convenience, and personalized food choices. Startups and smaller companies offering such things abound and tend to be closer to the cutting edge of these trends than their corporate counterparts. Through China Food Tech Hub, major CPGs will get easier access to both startup innovation and that cutting edge.

Big Food has been pushing the convenience factor for decades (whole chicken in a can, anyone?), but not so much the whole, natural foods with ingredients you can pronounce from sources you can easily identify. China is especially ripe for disruption: it’s the world’s largest food producer, but the country has also seen a four-fold increase in child obesity rates since the 1990s.

Of course, one could argue that Big Food isn’t so much interested in the issues as it is in furthering its corporate mission in markets where things like soda aren’t yet in decline, as they are in the U.S. (Coca-Cola has actually played a significant role in how the Chinese government has addressed the obesity crisis.) That said, Bits and Bites manages a portfolio that includes companies like Alchemy Foodtech, who is fighting diabetes, and plant-based protein company InnovoPro. The firm also partners with Future Food Institute, the Food Innovation Program, and other forward-thinking organizations. I have a hard time envisioning Coca-Cola getting in on the fight against diabetes, but you never know.

May 7, 2019

Newsletter: Food Waste Innovation in 2019, Amazon Go(es) to NYC

This is the web version of our weekly newsletter. Subscribe and get the best food tech news delivered directly to your inbox.

Food Waste Innovation in 2019

Fighting food waste is one of the next important frontiers of foodtech. In the course of just a few years, a question historically left on the periphery of the food industry has become a central issue: How do we curb the billions of tons of food that goes wasted around the world each year?

While no one’s going to solve the problem overnight, it’s encouraging that so many groups, from massive corporations to energetic startups to government bodies, are stepping forward with new ways to combat food waste. In fact, there are so many of them now we put together a market map this week to outline the different areas of food waste innovation. From new approaches to packaging to leveraging apps to the power of upcycling, these are the companies to watch in this important new sector.

Download the map below, and let us know if we missed anyone you think should be added.

Solar Foods CEO Wants to Make Food From Thin Air

Granted, if we start making food from thin air, waste could be considerably less problematic. That’s not wishful thinking on my part, either. As has been pointed out recently, Finnish company Solar Foods is using air and electricity to create a new kind of protein. It’s in a similar vein to what Impossible Foods is doing to create its “bleeding” meat.

Over the weekend, Mike dug into the details on a podcast with Solar Foods CEO Pasi Vainikka. If you’re wondering when food made from air will actually land on your dinner plate (sooner than you’d think), take a listen to Mike’s interview.

Amazon Go Debuts in NYC — With Cash

Speaking of glaringly large issues in foodtech: the fight around the cashless business model isn’t going away anytime soon, either. And, of course, Amazon’s a central figure in that fight, thanks to its Amazon Go stores, which were originally built on the cashless business model.

That hasn’t worked out so well for the Seattle giant. As more voices have risen in objection to cashless retail (citing the model’s discriminatory nature towards unbanked and underbanked populations), Amazon has felt the pressure. With restaurant chains like Sweetgreen reversing their cashless models and entire cities refusing to grant exemptions to retailers, Amazon has had to pivot away from purely cashless Go stores.

Hence, the new Amazon Go store, which debuted in NYC today. As Chris noted, “Once your shopping is done, there is a counter in the middle of the store where a person with a handheld scanner checks you out, accepts payment and will even give you a paper receipt.”

I have no doubt that at some point in our lifetimes we’ll see the country go cashless. But with digital discrimination become as big an issue as food waste, greenbacks aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Onward!

Jenn

May 6, 2019

Check These International Startup Accelerators Offering Foodtech Programs

The U.S. isn’t the only mentor around when it comes to startup accelerators that can help young foodtech companies grow, develop products, and head to market. And depending on a business and the products/services it produces, an overseas program can actually make more sense, as is the case with alternative meat companies and Asia, for example.

Read on for a few foodtech accelerators outside the U.S.:

Kickstart Accelerator
Zurich, Switzerland

Kickstart runs its accelerator program out of Zurich, Switzerland, but accepts participants from all over the world. While the range of companies it nurtures is pretty wide, encompassing everything from healthcare tech to the financial sector, it takes foodtech companies working in areas like sustainable packaging, food and nutrition personalization, and food traceability.

Participants get up to $10,000 CHF (~$9,829 USD) in business expenses covered (no equity fee), access to a mentorship network from top Swiss companies, collaboration opportunities with other companies, free office space, and access to investors.

The program runs from September 6 through November 8, 2019. Applications are open until May 17.

Startupbootcamp FoodTech
Rome, Italy

Like, Kickstart, Startupbootcamp caters to multiple types of companies but has a specific accelerator dedicated to food, this year taking place in Rome, Italy. The three-month-long Startupbootcamp FoodTech selects 10 companies from around the world and helps them accomplish in a few months what it claims would normally take a company over a year.

Even within the foodtech sector, Startupbootcamp takes a wide range of companies: indoor and vertical farming companies, food safety/traceability, biotech, processing, and AI are just a few areas the program caters to.

The chosen few will get access to mentors from major CPGs like Pepsi and Unilever, time with potential investors, classes and office space, and €15,000 (~$16,807 USD) in cash to cover living expenses while in Rome. Each company also gets €500,000 ($560,275 USD) in partner deals, with an opportunity to potentially earn even more. Startupbootcamp takes a 6 percent equity stake in each company.

Applications are open until June 20, 2019.

Brinc
Hong Kong

A growing number of companies and individuals believe Asia will lead the food sustainability market in the near future. With this in mind, Brinc runs two foodtech accelerators each year that nurture companies focused on tackling issues around issues like plant-based meat and dairy alternatives, health-promoting foods, insect-based proteins, and other areas of sustainable consumption.

Brinc guides participants through a five-stage system that covers the process of bringing a product to market, including prototype development, marketing and distribution, and patenting.

Those accepted to Brinc get $80,000 for a 10–15 percent equity fee for the program, a mentor network, guided curriculum, and 1:1 office hour sessions in Hong Kong. The program runs one month at minimum; extensions of that timeframe are decided on a case-by-case basis. Participants must register their business in Hong Kong.

Applications aren’t quite yet open for fall 2019, but you can sign up for updates here and get notified when that day comes.

Just Eat
London, UK

Just Eat is a UK-based company whose food delivery network operates around the world; its venture wing follows much the same structure, with its foodtech seed program based in London but open to startups from around the globe.

Chosen companies (between three and five) relocate to London for the 12-week period and work out of the Just Eat offices with mentors, fellow startups, and other food industry founders. Just Eat invests £20k (~$22,409) in the form of a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity)

Just Eat hasn’t yet specified the start date for its next program, so visit their website to stay updated on application deadlines.

May 1, 2019

Newly Downsized ChefSteps Dropping Sauce and Paid Content Businesses

Last week, news broke that ChefSteps had laid off a significant percentage of its staff. At the time,  it was unclear what the future held for the company other than an assurance from company CEO Chris Young that the Seattle startup and its flagship hardware product, the Joule sous vide appliance, would live on.

Now, thanks to a Facebook post from Young, we have a clearer picture of what a downsized ChefSteps will look like. Young’s note, which he wrote to the Cooking With Joule Facebook group, reiterated that ChefSteps and the Joule would live to see another day.

However, as I speculated last week, it looks like the company is getting out of the sauce business.

From the post:

I appreciate your understanding that in the coming days our focus will be on supporting our affected friends and that we may be a bit slower to respond than usual.

This also means that we will be discontinuing certain lines of business, including Joule Ready and any additional content being added to ChefSteps Premium.

I liked the Joule Ready sauce concept, even if the pricing for sauces ($4-$7 depending on the sauce) was a little high. Still, the idea of creating an easy sous vide meal without having to worry about getting the necessary ingredients to make a sauce like Thai curry or or tikka masala made life a little easier, even if it meant supplying your own protein.

From the looks of it, not enough people agreed with me. I have a feeling if the company was turning a profit or saw strong growth ahead for Joule Ready, they wouldn’t have killed the business after only half a year.

The company is also axing its paid content business. ChefSteps Premium, which offered video-centric cooking classes, in-depth how-to’s and exclusive recipes, cost subscribers a one-time fee of $39.  While it’s not clear how successful Premium was, the business clearly either didn’t have enough subscribers to justify the investment of putting new content behind the paywall or the company simply couldn’t afford to keep the team on. I do think the company made a strategic error early on by choosing to not ask its ChefSteps Premium customers to renew access annually (it was a pay-once, permanent subscription product), which negated any revenue growth opportunities as the company grew its subscriber base.

Finally, while Young didn’t go into too many details about how they ran into a cash crunch, he did drop one interesting clue:

As you’ve heard, there have been some changes at ChefSteps in the past week. Our funding situation unexpectedly changed (emphasis mine) and we’ve had to make the incredibly difficult decision to let a significant fraction of our amazing team go. This truly sucks.

While it was always assumed ChefSteps was in a good financial place because of the backing of billionaire Gabe Newell, it’s apparent now that wasn’t necessarily the case. Most interestingly, it looks like the sudden change in the health of the company’s balance sheet was not anticipated, making me wonder if either Newell called in the loan or had changed his position somehow and didn’t want to extend more credit to the company. There’s also the possibility ChefSteps had been seeking other financing and had something fall through at the last minute.

Either way, it looks like the company’s runway was suddenly shortened, which meant the startup no longer had the luxury of experimenting in new lines of business such as food delivery and premium content.

I also wonder if this means ChefSteps will permanently shelve its ongoing development of other hardware products. While the company never disclosed publicly what their next product would be, they’d been signaling for some time that new products were on the horizon.

With last week’s news, chances are any new products (one of which was speculated to be a steam oven) likely won’t see the light of day anytime soon.

April 19, 2019

Ecovative’s Mushroom Foam Could Solve Alternative Meat’s Texture Problem

When you bite into a juicy piece of steak — or any meat — a big part of the tasting experience is texture. It’s one of meat’s most defining characteristics, which also makes it really, really hard to accurately imitate. Alterna-meat companies are trying, but all too often their efforts fall short and we’re left with gummy vegan sausages or tough “chik’n” strips.

The secret to texture might lie in mushrooms. Or, more specifically, what lies beneath mushrooms. Ecovative, a biotech company based in upstate New York, is using mushroom roots (AKA mycelium) to give meat alternatives a better, meatier texture.

The company first developed a mycelium platform 12 years ago to use as sustainable packaging material. Then, a few years ago, they started developing a marshmallow-like mycelium foam, called “Atlast,” which could be used as scaffolding for tissue engineering. Ecovative co-founder and CEO Eben Bayer told me over the phone that they can grow the mycelium into a shape that emulates meat fibers, then infuse it with plant-based fats, flavors, and seasonings. In short: they can use it as a scaffold to grow meat.

This sort of scaffolding technology is really needed right now. Texture is a huge barrier to widespread acceptance for meat alternatives, both cell-based and plant-based. On the whole, cellular agriculture companies have figured out how to replicate animal cells. But as of now they can basically only copy and mush cells together, so they’re limited to making meats that don’t require much structure, like ground beef. Similarly, plant-based meat is struggling to replicate the exact texture of meat, cheese, and fish.

Ecovative isn’t the only company working on this problem. Redefine Meat is using 3D printing to try to make plants emulate the texture of beef. Researchers at Penn State are using LEGO pieces to spin edible scaffolds made of cornstarch, and others are experimenting with spinach leaves to help grow tissue.

But Ecovative’s platform has a couple of advantages. Mycelium is super easy and fast to grow: Bayer said it only takes nine days to grow a sizeable sheet of the mushroom foam. It’s also very cheap to make and extremely versatile. Scientists can either grow the foam into an intended shape — like, say, a pork chop — or cut and shape it after the sheet is ready.

Bayer told me that Ecovative will sell its mycelium foam to other businesses. He wouldn’t give specifics on pricing or when exactly they would head to market, but told me that the company will have “stuff to taste by this year.”

Sure, right now we’ve got vegan burgers that have a texture pretty close to the real thing. But what about bacon, or beef tenderloin, or steak? Until there are indistinguishable plant-based (or, down the road, cell-based) options for all cuts of meat, not just burgers, it’ll be hard to get carnivores on board with meat alternatives. Hopefully Ecovative’s mycelium can help crack the texture code.

April 17, 2019

Corporate Catering Service EAT Club Acquires Taro, Launches Zero-Carbon Program

Corporate lunch-delivery service EAT Club announced today it has acquired Bay Area-based meal delivery service Taro. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

EAT Club, who currently serves San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles, bills itself as a “virtual cafeteria” that delivers meals to offices, among them Facebook and Postmates. Workers can log onto the digital menu and choose from sandwiches, salads, wraps, and hot entrees which range between healthy (salmon salad) and hearty (turkey club). One person can input all the orders into EAT Club’s website or app, or invite individual employees to add to an order. Once an order is placed, Eat Club will then notify users when the food has arrived, and where it’s been set up (e.g., the conference room).

EAT Club previously had operations in NYC, too, but suspended those in August of 2018, seemingly due to how saturated the corporate catering space is in that city. Prior to that, the company acquired Farm Hill, another corporate catering service.

Taro, meanwhile, is best known for its “homestyle” Indian, Korean, and Chinese fare that also prioritize healthy, fresh ingredients. The company did a $2.8 million venture round in December of 2017.

For EAT Club, Taro brings its proprietary recipes as well as some new technology to the table with this acquisition. In particular, Taro’s distribution tech attracted EAT Club, though details are few and far between as to what exactly Taro has: “They’ve built some really interesting things we want to keep competitively secret on the equipment side,” EAT Club CEO Doug Leeds told TechCrunch.

As digital tech makes it easier to facilitate, ordering, payment, and delivery of corporate lunches, the number of startups popping up to serve this demand keeps growing. Besides EAT Club, Chewse, also in the Bay Area, recently raised $19 million for its “family-style” meals. ezCater just raised $100 million in a Series D round, and Hungry, which connects companies directly to the chef, raised $1.5 million and services areas like Virginia, Washington D.C., and Maryland.

According to the press release, EAT Club and Taro teams will integrate moving forward.

EAT Club also announced today, via a different press release, a Zero Carbon Initiative to invest in renewable energy and support carbon recapture projects. To do so, EAT Club is teamed up with sustainability consulting firm 3Degrees, with whom it’s building a “custom renewable energy and carbon offset program.” The program will match all of EAT Club’s electricity usage with renewable energy generation. It will also make its packaging recyclable or compostable. Leeds told TechCrunch that the company’s biggest environmental impact thus far is with transportation. Given that Taro has some technology secrets aimed at distribution up its sleeve, it’s possible some of the assets EAT Club just acquired could go towards helping lessen that footprint and find a more eco-friendly way to deliver lunches to the corporate world.

April 17, 2019

Kitchen United Announces Another Expansion for Its Ghost Kitchens

Kitchen United (KU) is making good on its promise to open multiple new locations over the course of 2019. The company announced another expansion today, this time for new locations in San Francisco and Los Angeles as well as a second spot in Chicago.

KU launched in 2017 with the aim to provide extra kitchen space for restaurants needing to fulfill off-premises (delivery) orders. The first KU location, in Pasadena, California, holds enough space for 15 restaurants to use. Other locations are similar in size.

Whereas some ghost kitchens exist to let restaurants or entrepreneurs try out new concepts and brands they might not have otherwise brought to market, Kitchen United is specifically aimed at helping existing restaurants manage the extra volume in orders created by delivery.

And the demand for delivery grows, we can expect to see more of these so-called ghost kitchens, from Kitchen United and others. The market for online food delivery is projected to be $30 billion by 2022 — and that’s just for the U.S.

Various iterations of the ghost kitchen have been popping up in response, and raising some hefty funds. Berlin-based company Keatz recently raised €12 million (~$13.6 million USD) for its virtual-kitchen network that operates around Europe. Uber is dabbling with its own ghost kitchens in Paris. Uber’s former CEO, Travis Kalanick, now runs a cloud kitchen company in Los Angeles.

Kitchen United, meanwhile, has expanded from the original Pasadena, CA location to Chicago’s River North neighborhood, and has already announced plans to open new centers in Atlanta, Scottsdale, AZ, Austin, TX, and Columbus, OH in 2019. (These are currently under construction.) A quick look at the expansion map on the KU site reveals that Houston, Dallas, NYC, and Washington, D.C. are also in the works for 2019.

According to the press release, the new LA, SF, and Chicago locations are in the process of accepting restaurant partners. Each will house between 10 and 15 restaurant brands.

April 16, 2019

Here’s The Spoon’s 2019 Food Robotics Market Map

Today we head to San Francisco for The Spoon’s first-ever food-robotics event. ArticulAte kicks off at 9:05 a.m. sharp at the General Assembly venue in SF, and throughout the daylong event talk will be about all things robots, from the technology itself to business and regulatory issues surrounding it.

When you stop and look around the food industry, whether it’s new restaurants embracing automation or companies changing the way we get our groceries, it’s easy to see why the food robotics market is projected to be a $3.1 billion market by 2025.

But there’s no one way to make a robot, and so to give you a sense of who’s who in this space, and to celebrate the start of ArticulAte, The Spoon’s editors put together this market map of the food robotics landscape.

This is the first edition of this map, which we’ll improve and build upon as the market changes and grows. If you have any suggestions for other companies or see ones we missed you think should be in there, let us know by leaving a comment below or emailing us at tips@thespoon.tech.

Click on the map below to enlarge it.

The Food Robotics Market 2019:

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