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Business of Food

April 21, 2021

Amazon Adds Pay-With-Your-Palm Service to Whole Foods Store in Seattle

Amazon announced today that it is bringing the Amazon One palm-scanning payment technology to Whole Foods stores in Seattle. The move marks the first use of the biometric system at a non-Amazon branded store.

Launched last September, Amazon One allows people to connect a credit card (and Amazon Prime account, of course) with a scan of their palm. Once scanned, customers can then pay for items at Amazon One-enabled stores simply by waving their hand over a special terminal at checkout.

As of March 2021, Amazon One was available in 12 Amazon stores in the Seattle area including Amazon Go, Go Grocery, and Amazon 4-Star. Starting today, Amazon One will be available at the Madison Broadway in Seattle Whole Foods, and the company says it will be expanding the program to seven more Seattle area Whole Foods locations in the coming months.

The addition of Amazon One at Whole Foods isn’t a surprise, given that Amazon owns Whole Foods. But it’s further illustration of how Amazon is leveraging its deep technological capabilities to reshape shopping experiences — and putting pressure on other brick-and-mortar retailers to up their own checkout experiences.

Amazon has developed a number of different systems to make checkout more frictionless. Famously, Amazon Go kicked off the era of “just walk out” cashierless checkout technology, which lets customers go into the store, grab what they want and get charged automatically upon exit. Amazon has also developed its Dash Cart, a smart shopping cart that allows for cashierless checkout at its stores.

Amazon also aims to license its various technologies to third parties. For instance, the company created a cashierless airport convenience store with the Hudson’s brand. And in the FAQ accompanying today’s Amazon One news, the company says it is in active discussions with several potential customers to use the palm payment system.

There are a number of startups looking to bring their own brand of cashierless checkout to retail (and help stave off Amazon). Companies like Zippin and Grabango install cameras and sensors to re-create the same type of just walk out shopping experience. And there are a number of smart shopping cart companies including Caper, Supersmart and Veeve.

If you want to learn more about the future of frictionless checkout at retail, be sure to attend ArticulATE, our food robotics and automation virtual summit on May 18th. We’ll have speakers from Zippin, Nomitri and many more, so get your ticket today!

April 20, 2021

OneThird Raises €1.5M for Its Food-Waste-Fighting Tech

Netherlands-based food tech company OneThird announced today it has raised €1.5 million ($1.8 million USD) for its shelf-life-prediction technology that helps growers, retailers, and distributors cut down on food waste. SHIFT Invest and Oost NL participated in the round, according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

The new funds will partly go towards further developing OneThird’s tech, which it calls a “fresh produce quality prediction platform.” The platform consists of a handheld scanner, near-infrared sensors, artificial intelligence, and data analytics used in combination to “look inside” the produce and determine its remaining shelf life.

“Our unique prediction technology allows quality inspectors throughout the food supply chain to get immediate feedback about shelf life and other quality parameters of fresh produce and take better decisions,” Marco Snikkers, founder of OneThird, said in today’s press release. 

OneThird says that its technology can work in multiple stages of the supply chain. Growers, for example, can use the platform to determine where they should ship different batches of produce. Distributors can use it to make routing decisions, while retailers can train their staff to assess the freshness of produce in the store.

The point of all this, of course, is to cut down on food waste. As underscored by the OneThird company name, a third of all the world’s food goes to waste each year, with $408 billion spent in the U.S. alone to grow, process, transport, and store food that is never consumed. The waste has a number of consequences, from environmental degradation to people going hungry to lost money for retailers, distributors, and growers.

OneThird joins a growing list of companies bringing a variety of food-waste-fighting solutions to market, from Hazel’s packaging inserts to food redistribution companies like Too Good to Go to Apeel’s edible coating.

OneThird will also use its new funds to expand retail pilots of its platform and build out its technical team by acquiring AI specialist firm Impact Analytics.

April 20, 2021

Big Idea Ventures Unveils the Third Cohort for Alt-Protein Accelerator

Food tech investment firm Big Idea Ventures (BIV) this week unveiled the companies chosen for Cohort 3 of its alt-protein-focused accelerator program. Fifteen early-stage startups will participate in the five-month-long program, either in NYC or Singapore, according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

BIV looks for companies developing both plant-based and cultured protein products and ingredients. Food tech companies related to the alt-protein space are also considered. Past program participants include companies from the plant-based protein space, cultured protein, and corresponding technologies. Evo, MeliBio, and WTH Foods have all taken part in the program.

BIV says its third cohort is focused on sustainably feeding a growing world population.To that end, chosen companies include:

NYC Program:

  • AquaCultured Foods: A seafood alternative using microbial fermentation
  • The Frauxmagerie: A plant-based cheese using cultures without dairy
  • Innocent Meat: A B2B cell-based meat production system
  • incrEDIBLE: An edible cutlery to reduce single-use plastics
  • Blue Ridge Bantam: A cell-based ground and whole-cut turkey
  • New Breed Meats: Plant-based burgers, grounds and sausages
  • Plant Ranch: Plant-based Mexican meats

Singapore Program:

  • Angie’s Tempeh: Tempeh fermentation technology to create protein-rich foods
  • Animal Alternative Technologies: Cell-based meat services including bioreactors and software
  • Farmsow: A B2B ingredients company developing sustainable alternatives to tropical oils and animal fats
  • GreenGourmet Foods: Plant-based dairy 
  • Haofood: Alternative chicken protein from peanut focused on the Asian market
  • MAD Foods: A plant-based beverage 

Two companies — plant-based yogurt maker Wellme and a food tech startup called Meat. The End — will participate in both NYC and Singapore.

Beside $125,000 in cash investment and $75,000 on in-kind investment, chosen companies also get access to co-working space, including test kitchens, for the duration of the program, as well as mentorship and networking opportunities.

BIV is also currently taking applications for Cohort IV, which will take place during summer 2021. Applications are taken on a rolling basis.

April 19, 2021

Plant-Based Meat Maker Hungry Planet Raises $25M

St. Louis, Missouri-based Hungry Planet announced today it has closed an oversubscribed $25 million Series A round of funding. Post Holdings led the round, with participation from Singaporean investment group TRIREC, and “other leading plant-forward investors,” according to a press release.

Aided by these new funds, Hungry Planet says it will expand its line of plant-based meats across retail and foodservice, domestically and in international markets. The company’s current product line includes chicken, pork, beef, lamb, turkey, crab, chorizo, breakfast sausage, and Italian sausage alternatives.  

Hungry Planet says its products are now in thousands of venues across the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand restaurants, retail, and foodservice outlets. A broader retail launch is currently happening across the USA and Singapore, with more markets planned for the future.

Hungry Planet’s fundraise comes on the heels of the Good Food Institute (GFI) and the Plant-Based Foods Association (PBFA)’s recent announcement that retail sales of plant-based foods in the U.S. reached $7 billion in 2020. Additionally, an earlier report from March found $2.1 billion had been invested in plant-based foods in 2020.

The $25 million raised by Hungry Planet is just the latest in a number of recent fundraises by plant-based meat-makers, including Israeli startup Redefine Meat’s $29 million Series A round, Gathered Foods’ $26.3 million, and AtLast’s $40 million from last week.

One thing that may help Hungry Planet compete with all this competition is its partnership with Post Holdings. The deal, first announced in January 2021, gives Hungry Planet access to Post’s Foodservice and Retail units, through which the company can expand its own distribution.

Additionally, Hungry Planet CEO and co-founder Todd Boyman said in today’s press release that the Series A round will allow the company “to expand further and faster.” Boyman founded the company in 2014 with his sister Jody Boyman. With the new funding, Hungry Planet has raised a total of $25.5 million to date.

April 19, 2021

Jellatech Raises $2M for Its Animal-Free Collagen and Gelatin

Jellatech, a company making animal-free gelatin and collagen ingredients, announced today it has raised $2 million in pre-seed funding. Green Queen was first to break the news. The round included participation from Big Idea Ventures, Sustainable Food Ventures, Iron Grey, YellowDog, 7 Hound Ventures, Capital V, Sentient Investments and Bluestein Ventures. 

Raleigh, North Carolina-based Jellatech came out of stealth mode in November 2020. The company grows gelatin and collagen in bioreactors, rather than sourcing those ingredients from the bones and skin of animals and fish. The company says it does not need to ship animals anywhere or slaughter them in order to develop its products. Rather, it uses animal cells to grow the collagen and gelatin.

Once inside a bioreactor, these cells produce the collagen, which can then be isolated and used in a range of different products in the food, skincare, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals, to name just a few areas. As Green Queen points out, plant-based alternatives like pectin or agar haven’t yet been able to replace traditional collagen and gelatin because of their limited functionality.

Jellatech’s cell-cultured method isn’t completely animal free, since animal cells are required. However, as noted above, the cell-based method doesn’t require ant animal slaughter. 

Geltor is another company developing alt-gelatin, albeit via an entirely different method. Geltor uses microbes to “grow” collagen and its constituent proteins, including gelatin, via fermentation.

Both startups aim to decrease dependence on the traditional collagen/gelatin market, which Jellatech says is worth $3.5 billion dollars is expected to grow 9 percent annually.  

Funds from this pre-seed round will go towards further developing products for the food, skincare and medical industries. Jellatech also said its first samples will be sent out by the end of April 2021.  

April 18, 2021

Pizza: an Opportunity for Restaurant Tech Innovation

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Recently, a restaurant technology company called Slice announced a $40 million fundraise, suggesting there’s a huge opportunity when it comes to making software specifically geared towards the independent pizzeria. 

Slice’s platform, developed by founders with a long history in the pizza space, includes online ordering capabilities, a pizza rewards program, a POS system, the option to build a branded website, and the option to offer delivery, among other things. From the consumer-facing view, Slice is a marketplace of local pizzerias (e.g., not Papa John’s) from which to order and build up reward points that eventually result in free food. Slice is currently up and running in businesses across all 50 U.S. states and serves over 15,000 shops. The potential market it could serve — that is, independent pizzerias — numbers in the tens of thousands at this point in the U.S.

Why, you ask, would an independent pizzeria need a pizza-specific platform to do business?

It’s all in that word “independent.”

As Slice’s Chief Product Officer, Preethy Vaidyanatha, explained to me recently, if you want to run a pizza business (or any restaurant, really), you basically have two options: open a Domino’s (or Pizza Hut, or Papa John’s) franchise or start your own business. The latter choice allows for more culinary creativity and freedom, but comes with the added stressors of running a type of business that’s low-margin even when there’s not a pandemic shutting down restaurants left and right. 

On top of that — and this is what Slice’s technology really aims to address — technology’s march on the restaurant business is unavoidable at this point for pretty much everyone. Digital ordering is a must for businesses large and small now. And after a year of shutdowns and ever-changing restrictions on restaurants, costs have to be reeled in, and digitizing the back of house (bookkeeping, inventory management, etc.) is one way to do that.

Add to this some elements very specific to pizzerias. The menu may be simple (pizza), but it has to accommodate requests like half-and-half toppings, extra cheese, and crust types. Some businesses sell both whole pies and individual slices. Digitally speaking, these choices need to be available with just a couple clicks on a phone or computer. Meanwhile, many pizzerias still handle their own delivery, which as to be accounted for when it comes to managing operations. 

Slice handles the technical logistics of all of those situations, and there is arguably plenty of room for other restaurant tech companies to also develop tools for these things.

If you’re Domino’s, you can just throw money at the problem and open an innovation center to tackle these issues. I can promise you that your average family-owned pizza shop does not have its own innovation center. Nonetheless, it and any other independent pizzeria needs the ability to also offer the kinds of digital conveniences consumers get from the big companies, and that’s where restaurant tech companies like Slice could prove hugely valuable. 

For its part, Slice’s tech offers independent shops the same digitization, process automation, and online ordering/payment tools you would get with Domino’s or a third-party delivery service, but at a far lower cost. The company did not divulge actual numbers, but did mention that restaurants pay a flat fee per transaction to use the platform, rather than the percentage-per-transaction model used by DoorDash et al.

Pizza has always been in its own class when it comes to delivery, from the food itself to the way it handles off-premises formats like delivery. Getting its own tech stack made for pizzerias by pizzerias seems like the natural next step in the segments evolution.

 

Starbucks has teamed up with Arizona State University to open a research and innovation facility that will test initiatives that support more sustainability in Starbucks stores. The facility is called the ASU-Starbucks Center for the Future of the People and the Planet, and will open at the end of 2021. 

Toast has made updates to its Order & Pay tool, including pre-authorization that lets customers start a tab, authorize a credit card, and enable group ordering, all from their own mobile device.

Atlanta-based pay-at-the-table startup sunday recently launched its QR code solution, following a $24 million fundraise. The Atlanta, Georgia-based company wants, like many others, to make it easier for guests to get and pay their bill in the restaurant.

April 16, 2021

Chipotle Diverting More Than Half Its Waste, Says Latest Company Sustainability Report

Chipotle has diverted 51 percent of its waste, the company said in its 2020 Sustainability Report released this week. The QSR chain said it was able to do much of this through recycling, composting, and waste-to-energy programs.

This is the third annual sustainability report from Chipotle, and it tracks the company’s progress on sustainability goals over time. For example, diverting 2,071,583 cubic yards of waste — or over half of all its waste — was a company goal laid out in the 2018 Sustainability Report. 

Waste-diverting efforts have so far included transforming used plastic gloves into trash bags, and the Avocado Dye Line, which involves dying clothing with the pits of avocados. Caitlin Leibert, Head of Sustainability for Chipotle, noted in a statement that keeping that much waste out of the landfills was “an extraordinary achievement” for a company of that size. Chipotle currently operates more than 2,500 locations.

The 2020 Sustainability report aligns with the company’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metric, which ties some executive compensation to annual targets around diversity and sustainability. Chipotle breaks these objectives into three categories: food and animals, people, and the environment.

Across those three categories, some results from the 2021 sustainability report include:

  • Purchasing over 31 million pounds of local produce – an investment of more than $23.3 million into local food systems
  • Donated more than $5 million to local community organizations through 26,000 fundraisers in its restaurants
  • Offered industry-leading, debt-free degrees in business for employees and recently expanded the program to include Culinary, Hospitality and Agriculture majors
  • Setting up and maintaining a composting program at 25 percent of its locations 
  • Reducing 62,582 kWh of energy, which the company says is the emissions equivalent of 10,000 passenger vehicles driven for one year or 5,300 homes powered for one year
  • Launching Real Foodprint, a digital tool that calculates the environmental impact of Chipotle ingredients
  • Upcycling 60,000 avocados for the Dye Line

In a forward to the report, Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol said “more work can always be done,” and along those lines, the report outlines future goals for the company. Among those are, converting more than 400 acres of conventional farmland to organic farmland, developing a Minority Supplier Development program, reducing overall waste by 5 percent by 2025, and piloting at least one initiative in 2021 that reduces plastic.

Chipotle is one of those chains that, thanks to a focus on digital prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, has not just pulled through but thrived during the last year. The brand is big enough at this point that its sustainability practices can help influence the entire restaurant industry,

April 15, 2021

Les Nouvelles Fermes Raises €2M to Expand Its Aquaponics Farms

Bordeaux, France-based indoor farming company Les Nouvelles Fermes announced today it has raised €2 million (~$2.4 million USD) to build what it’s calling the largest aquaponic farm in Europe. EU Startups was first to write about the news. The round included participation from IRDI, the Banque des Territoires, Crédit Agricole Aquitaine and the CIC. This is Les Nouvelles Fermes first round of funding.

The new farm, dubbed “Odette,” will launch at the end of 2021 in the Bordeaux Metropolitan area. Like Les Nouvelles Fermes’ current farm, also in Bordeaux, Odette will use a closed-circuit aquaponics system to grow both vegetables and fish. 

Aquaponics combines raising fish in tanks with growing produce via hydroponics. Nutrient-rich discharge from the fish is fed to the plants, which then can clean the water that goes back to the fish, creating an entirely closed-loop system. 

“Pauline,” Les Nouvelles Fermes’ current farm, grows a mixture of leafy greens, fruits, and vegetables, in addition to raising rainbow trout. The forthcoming Odette will do the same. EU Startups noted that the company’s object in opening a new farm is to “to validate an operating model and then reproduce it in the immediate vicinity of the major urban centres in France and Europe, with the possibility to restore abandoned land, while creating agricultural occupations.”

Closed-loop systems like Pauline and Odette aren’t yet widespread in the indoor farming community yet. However, given the many sustainability issues around both fishing and farming, that may change as technologies get cheaper and a little more standardized. Upward Farms, based in Brooklyn, New York, is another company producing fish and leafy greens via a closed-loop system.

Along those lines, Les Nousvelles Fermes plans to duplicate its model and technology on a much larger scale in future. The company has already signed a partnership with the company Orange to further develop its technological solution. 

April 15, 2021

Element Farms Plans a New High-Tech Greenhouse Customized for Growing Spinach

Element Farms announced this week its plans to expand its greenhouse operations and build a new, 2.5-acre facility designed specifically to grow baby spinach. This will be the company’s second high-tech farm, the first being a 1.5-acre facility that already grows arugula, lettuces, beet greens, and, of course, spinach. Like the first, the second farm will also be located in Lafayette, New Jersey, according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

Baby spinach is a popular produce type in the U.S. But in many parts of the country, it can only grow outside at certain times (spring and fall), and its delicacy and susceptibility to bacteria and disease make it a prime candidate for local, indoor farms. 

However, growing spinach indoors is actually quite challenging, which is one of the reasons we don’t see more controlled environment agriculture (CEA) companies doing it. In particular, spinach is susceptible to the water-borne pathgen Pythium aphanadermatum, a water mold that attacks the plant roots and causes poor crop quality and crop death.

When we spoke a while back, Element’s CEO Serdar Mizrakci explained that technology allows the company to add another layer of precision control to better aid against water-borne pathogens and other diseases. To that end, Element uses its own proprietary technology to monitor plants, calculate recipes for plant nutrients supplemental lighting, and help spot problems during the grow process. As in other CEA settings, greens are grown without pesticides and meant to serve customers no farther than about a day’s drive away.

The company doesn’t have a lot of competition right now when it comes to spinach, BrightFarms being one notable exception. As technology improves and costs come down for CEA growers, more companies may join the efforts to grow spinach indoors.

Element says its existing farm, located in Lafayette, New Jersey, currently delivers directly to more than 120 retailers, including Key Food, Whole Foods, and e-commerce shops Misfits Market and FreshDirect. When the new farm is up and running, Element will be on track to ship 2 million pounds of greens per year. 

The new farm is slated to open later in 2021. Additional farms are planned for other U.S. markets and will be announced “in the coming year.”

April 14, 2021

Yes, Mealworms Are Gross. Here’s Why They Matter

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Another step was made this week towards edible insects as a source of protein for humans. Question is, Will bugs ever become an ordinary part of the ordinary American’s diet?

This is not a new question. For years, the food industry, the media, and even the United Nations have urged cultures not historically acclimated to bugs to consider insects like mealworms and grasshoppers as more sustainable forms of protein. Mealworms, for example, are high in protein and require less land to produce than traditional meat sources like cows or chicken.  

And speaking of mealworms, this week, insect protein startup Ÿnsect announced it had acquired Dutch agtech company Protifarm, which raises mealworms for human food consumption. A press release from Ÿnsect noted that the deal will let the company speed up its manufacturing process for foods geared towards humans, providing yet another source of alternative protein for the planet. The news comes a few months after the European Food Safety Authority granted its approval of mealworms for human consumption. Ÿnsect also plans to file for GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status in the U.S.

Additionally, France-based Ÿnsect will be able to expand internationally with the integration of Protifarm, which has food customers in Germany, the Netherlands, England, Denmark, and Belgium. In fact, the acquisition makes Ÿnsect the world’s largest producer of insect food and animal feed, and bumps its portfolio of patents to nearly 300.

Were we talking about anything other than mealworms for human consumption, all the above points would suggest mainstream success is a likelihood if not a foregone conclusion.

But we are, in fact, talking about bugs, and any hope of eliminating (or lessening) the “ick” factor involved is going to require a seismic change in perception for many consumers. Roughly 2 billion people around the world eat insects on the regular, but they don’t typically live in the countries Ÿnsect is eyeing for expansion, which includes those listed above as well as the United States.

One way to potentially enable a perception change is to make insects an ingredient, such as a powder, that gets added to other foods, rather than a standalone item. Consumers might be more likely to buy a pasta made with mealworm powder than, say, dried mealworms in a vacuum-sealed bag for snacking.

Ÿnsect, for example, has a Buffalo mealworm ingredient that is part of biscuits, pastas, sport nutrition bars, and meat substitute products. The company also told AgFunder this week that it is targeting athletes first, who might be attracted to the health benefits of mealworm protein. Hardcore environmentalists are another group that could potentially be swayed, particularly those that want alternative sources of protein but are skeptical about the nutrition profile of the current pack of plant-based meats on offer. Making insects part of an experience, say, at a theme park, is also another avenue in. After all, Doritos were invented from trash at Disneyland, and so who’s to say cookies made with cricket powder wouldn’t be a hit in Fantasyland? 

Insects becoming a staple of the average Western household, however, still feels like a long shot. At the very least, it would take some serious marketing genius to even start to change mainstream consumers’ perceptions around eating bugs, to say nothing of the research and development that would have to go into creating products that taste as good or better than traditional protein sources. And there will always be those consumers that turn their noses up at the stuff on principle.

These issues aren’t actually unique to mealworms and other insects. In fact, as I write this, cultured meat is dealing with its own consumer perception challenges, albeit on a different scale, as well as hurdles around creating a product that tastes as good as traditional protein. 

All of which is to say, mealworms, crickets, and the like may yet have their moment. It will just probably look a whole lot different than what most of us still imagine when we hear the phrase “edible insect.”

Alt-Protein News From the Week

Revo Foods Raises €1.5M to Advance its 3D-Printed Alternative Salmon – The company will use the funding to accelerate its 3D food printing process, as well as expand its team.

Cultured Decadence Raises $1.6M to Make Lobster in a Lab – The Wisconsin-based cell ag company will use to the new funds to create what it says will be the first cell-cultured lobster meat in North America

Beyond Meat Boosts European Retail Presence – The plant-based meat giant said it is bolstering its presence at retail stores across Europe this spring, including those in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

April 14, 2021

Slice Raises $40M to Digitize the Independent Pizzeria

Slice, a restaurant-tech platform for independent pizzerias, announced today it has raised $40 million in Series D funding. The round was led by Cross Creek with participation from existing investors including 01 Advisors, GGV Capital, KKR, and Primary Ventures. It brings Slice’s total funding to date to $165 million.

The Slice platform is a suite of tools, including online ordering, a rewards program, delivery facilitation, and a POS system, made specifically with independent pizzerias in mind. The company’s Chief Product Officer, Preethy Vaidyanathan, explained during an interview with The Spoon last week that the idea is to provide small and/or independent pizza shops and chains with the same digital advantages of a major chain like Domino’s.

Whereas most online ordering software is built to serve any type of restaurant business, Slice’s is, according to Vaidyanathan, geared towards the “specialized needs that a pizzeria has.” Menus are one simple example, since pizza shops have to accommodate for things like different crust styles, and half-and-half toppings. Via a Domino’s or Pizza Hut app, making these choices is a straightforward process that takes just a couple clicks. Slice is trying to provide the same ease of ordering for independent pizzerias.

Restaurants pay a fixed cost per order to use the Slice technology, as opposed to the percentage-per-transaction model used by most third-party delivery services.

On the consumer-facing side, Slice functions as an online marketplace for pizzerias and is available for both iOS and Android. Vaidyanathan said the marketplace is available across all 50 U.S. states and that there are “well over 15,0000 shops” in the Slice network currently.

The funding news comes on the heels of Slice’s new Rewards program, which is kind of like a Starbucks app for pizzerias. Users get points for every $15 spent at a participating shop. Once they have enough points, they receive a free pie. Meanwhile, the rewards program incentivizes consumers to support local businesses, many of which are still struggling from the last year’s shutdowns and restrictions.

Along those lines, Slice said in today’s press release that it will use the new funds to expand its product line as well as invest more in its Slice Accelerate program, which invests $15,000 into select pizzerias to help them digitize their businesses.

April 14, 2021

Territory Foods Raises $22M for its Chef-Created Prepared Meal Subscription Service

Territory Foods, a marketplace where local restaurants can sell their meals for delivery via subscription, announced yesterday that it has raised a $22 million Series B round of funding. The round was led by U.S. Venture Partners, with participation from Upfront Ventures, Lewis & Clark Ventures, DF Enterprises, S2G Ventures, Gaingles, Middleland Capital, Finistere Ventures and Rethink Food Capital. This brings the total amount of funding raised by the company to $44 million.

Territory is a different from other fresh meal delivery services in that it partners with and sells meals from local chefs and restaurants as a weekly subscription. So instead of going to a restaurant once or twice a week, a customer can choose to order a number of meals in advance. The meals arrived prepared and packaged up, so they only need to be re-heated, adding to the convenience factor.

The company’s subscription service really became important during the pandemic last year, as restaurants were forced to close their dine-in operations. Territory offered those restaurants and chefs an added revenue stream by creating and assisting with this D2C shipping channel. The chefs and restaurants make the meals and Territory takes care of all the logistics like ordering, packaging and delivery. Not only could Territory provide more orders, but those orders were also frontloaded and batched. This smoothed out revenue volatility from night to night and gave chefs more time to prepare.

In addition to creating another sales channel for chefs and restaurants, Territory can also extend their geographic reach. A San Francisco restaurant may only deliver hot meals to certain neighborhoods, but Territory can delivered the packaged versions meals more widely throughout the Bay Area.

As we come out of the pandemic, one has to wonder what will happen to prepared meal delivery services like Territory Foods and Freshly (which was acquired by Nestlé). With the ability to once again eat out at restaurants — and with other people — will consumers still want to order a week’s worth of prepared meals? Or have they gotten so hooked on prepared meal delivery that they won’t let their subscription go? We’re about to find out.

Territory already serves 20 markets across the U.S. including Miami, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. The company told Crunchbase News that it will use its new funding to expand into new cities as well as invest in technology and food as medicine initiatives.

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