Minnow Technologies, which creates smart lockers for food delivery and pickup, announced today that it has raised an additional $3 million in Seed funding. Branded Strategic Hospitality led the round, which also saw participation from Elevate Capital and Portland Seed Fund. This brings Minnow’s total funding to date to $6.4 million.
Seattle, Washington-based Minnow has certainly had a twisty-turny startup journey . The company started out in Portland, Maine in 2017 as Veebie and made a mobile lunch pickup locker system. In 2018, the company moved to to the West Coast, changed its name to Kadabra and pivoted to making stationary pickup lockers. In 2020 the company, now called Minnow, launched its first pickup pods in Portland, Oregon.
Minnow’s smart lockers can be installed in residential buildings, office buildings, college campuses and other locations. The units are like an Amazon locker for restaurant delivery. Instead of needing to be home when a delivery driver arrives (or come downstairs if you live in a tall building), orders are placed inside a Minnow pod cubby. When the customer is ready, they go to the locker, enter a code and retrieve their food.
Minnow’s pod system took on greater importance last year because it provides a contactless method of delivery. Customers and delivery people don’t have to interact with one another, and food can be securely stowed until pickup. Solving these issues around convenience and safety helped Minnow win the Startup Showcase at our Smart Kitchen Summit last year.
Minnow says that is has installations across the U.S. and in Japan, and that the first batch of Pickup Pods is already sold out. (The company is accepting pre-orders for batch two.) With its new funding, the company is accelerating the production of its first commercial model, the M8.
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