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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

ezCater

Food Tech News: New Growth Medium for Cultured Meat, Pepsi’s Plastic-Free Promise

As winter quickly approaches, COVID-19 restrictions resurge and stay-at-home orders seem like they’re in the near future. If you’re like me, you might be trying to decide which new kitchen project you want to take on. I perfected my kombucha process in March and even experimented with alcoholic booch (it was terrible). Should I try my hand at vegan donuts or croissants this time around? Sauerkraut or kimchi?

With many of us being stuck indoors once again, it might be a perfect time to catch up on some Food Tech News. This week we have news on the development of a new growth medium for cultured meat cells, sustainable Pepsi bottle packaging, Good Catch’s expansion into Europe, and Subway’s new online catering platform.

Innovate UK funds development of new growth medium for cultured meat

Centre for Process Innovation and 3D Bio-Tissues, a start-up from Newcastle University, have partnered and received grant money from Innovate UK to make cultured meat animal-free while simultaneously reducing the cost of developing it. The project aims to replace the most common growth media used to culture animal cells, called fetal bovine serum (FBS). There is a morality issue with FBS, as it is extracted from slaughtered pregnant cows in the meat and dairy industry. The new serum will likely be developed from agro-industrial byproducts, which would then remove the use of animals and then solve the ethical issue that FBS poses.

Pepsi to go 100 percent plastic-free in several European markets by 2022

PepsiCo announced this week that it will be transitioning to use recycled post-consumer plastics for its Pepsi bottles in several European countries. By 2021, Spain, Greece, Poland, Germany, and Romania will have 100% rPET(recycled polyethylene terephthalate) Pepsi bottles. France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Great Britain will make the switch by 2022. The company estimates that this change will save around 70,000 tons of single-use plastic a year.

Good Catch expands to Europe

Good Catch, producers of plant-based seafood, expanded its products into the European countries of Spain and the Netherlands this week. The company’s vegan tuna, fish burgers, and crab cakes are now available in 70 different stores throughout the Netherlands and in the specialty chain Sanchez Romero in Madrid. This news follows Good Catch’s recent expansion into Canada in October and the launch of the company’s D2C platform last month.

Subway launches online catering platform

Subway announced the launch of its new online catering platform that is provided by ezCater, an online marketplace for business catering. The new platform aims to offer a convenient way to place large orders for employee lunches and company events. This new feature is now available at every Subway located in the US.

Week in Restaurants: More Virtual Eateries, 7-Year-Old Predictions That Came True

Another week another virtual restaurant, not to mention more free food via third-party delivery services running promo campaigns in the hopes of enticing more customers. And while said third-party services were busy debating the ethics of the on-demand delivery  model, here’s what else happened this week in the restaurant industry. 

Grubhub and Lettuce Entertain You Launch a Third Virtual Concept

Grubhub has been capitalizing on the virtual restaurant concept of late, rolling out delivery-only establishments in partnership with restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You. The two have already launched concepts around the Whole30 diet and lifestyle brand Bon Appétit. This week, the third-party delivery service announced a third virtual restaurant concept, this one inspired by Bharathi “Bonnie” Rao, a retired school teacher, curry leaf farmer and owner of Perryville Farms. Dubbed Padma’s Curry Leaf, the new “restaurant” will serve Indian-inspired lunch and dinner dishes exclusively through Grubhub.

2020 Predictions From 2013

Restaurant tech — both the adoption of it and the actual tools — has changed a lot in the last seven years, something highlighted this week in an article from Nation’s Restaurant News that looks back at a handful of 2013 predictions. How do they hold up in 2020? “Damn well, actually,” writes NRN contributor Ron Ruggles, who helped come up with the original outlook. AI in the drive-thru, digital ordering and payments, and ubiquitous outlets and USB ports for customers’ gadgets in restaurants all make appearances on the original 2013 list, and are all things we see in restaurants today. Read the full list here.

Red Lobster Joins an E-Catering Platform 

Red Lobster is the latest restaurant chain to capitalize on the growing market for catering. This week, the chain announced it has joined ezCater’s platform, an online marketplace through which restaurants can launch and manage corporate catering businesses. Chili’s, Panda Express, McAllister’s Deli, and many other major restaurant chains are already clients of the service. 

Postmates Is Giving Away $1M in Chicken

Postmates has run the numbers and, at least according to company data and a press release, determined that chicken is one of the top items ordered from the service during football games. With that in mind, the third-party delivery service is giving away $1 million worth of chicken this Sunday, January 19. Users can add a promo code (FREECHICKEN) to any chicken order to get in on the deal.

Chowly and ezCater Team Up to Integrate Catering Orders Into Restaurant POS Systems

Restaurant tech company Chowly, which integrates third-party delivery orders with restaurant POS systems, officially announced today its partnership with online catering marketplace ezCater. Chowly restaurant customers interested in adding catering as another ordering channel will now be able to do so through the ezCater integration, according to a press release from Chowly.

Since catering is yet-another type of off-premises ordering, restaurants typically have to manually input those orders into the main POS system — a time-consuming process that’s also highly susceptible to human error. That issue isn’t unique to catering, but since the ticket size of catering orders tends to be much higher (around $283), making a mistake gets costly much faster.

At least on the order processing side, Chicago-based Chowly solves that issue by taking the takes the human out of that equation. The company’s software automates the process of getting catering orders into a restaurant’s main POS system. When a customer places an order via a third party, whether it’s DoorDash or ezCater, that data gets automatically transmitted to the restaurant’s in-house POS system and enters the main ticket stream. All this happens in about 30 seconds, according to Chowly’s website, and for restaurants, there’s no additional hardware needed to use the system.

Chowly’s software is already well known in the restaurant biz for automating the process of getting third-party delivery orders into the POS system. The company partnered with DoorDash in September and also counts Jet’s Pizza, Branded Restaurants, and other chains among its restaurant partners (not to mention, some ghost kitchens).  

ezCater, meanwhile, raised $150 million earlier this year to expand its online catering marketplace. Its integration with Chowly adds another off-premises ordering channel for restaurants to utilize. Charlotte, NC-based Clean Juice is one such chain doing that. According to the press release, Clean Juice, who was already a Chowly customer, started offering catering at all 80 of its locations after adding ezCater as an ordering channel. 

Catering juice and catering full meals are two different things, of course, and the latter takes more time, money, and manpower than some chains have, POS integration or no. Nonetheless, the online catering world is growing. For example, EAT Club is a “virtual cafeteria” serving corporate offices in the San Francisco Bay Area. City Pantry, which Just Eat acquired in July, has a similar service in London.

Off-premises orders expected to make up the bulk of restaurant sales over the next decade. As companies like Chowly work to make the tech side of processing catering orders easier for restaurants, we’ll likely see more of those catering options at schools, universities, and in the workplace in the future.

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.

ezCater Raises $150M to Expand Global Catering Marketplace

Today, online catering marketplace ezCater announced it’s closed a $150 million Series D-1 round, co-led by Lightspeed VenturePartners and GIC.

This comes nine months after ezCater raised a $100 million Series D round. It brings the catering giant’s total funding to $320 million and puts them at a $1.25 billion valuation, making them a food tech unicorn. And as far as we’re aware, they’re the first food tech catering unicorn.

In addition to raising some serious funds, ezCater has been on the expansion path this past year. In July 2018 the Boston-based company expanded globally by acquiring Paris-based online catering platform GoCater. And just last week, they acquired MonkeySoft Solutions, a software company which helps restaurant operators increase off-premise sales through training and data insights.

Currently, over 60,000 restaurants and caterers use ezCater’s platform worldwide. According to a press release sent to the Spoon, the latest raise will help ezCater expand their global operations.

It’s a big day for corporate catering companies, apparently. Hungry, the online marketplace which connects independent chefs with business catering opportunities, raised $8 million.

Which, compared to $150 million, might not sound all that significant. However, it goes to show that the growth in the catering market isn’t slowing down anytime soon, especially as more and more tech companies offer free food perks to entice employees.

In the past year, both ZeroCater, Chewse, Oh My Green and Platterz raised double-digit million dollar rounds. In the U.K., Feedr raised £1.5 million (~$1.92M USD). At the same time, there’s also been some consolidation and reduction in the space. Square acquired Zesty, EAT Club acquired Farm Hill and Peach laid off 33 percent of its staff.

ezCater’s massive funding round shows that the catering space is likely to see some more big investments — and big shakeups — in the next year, too.

ezCater Acquires French Startup GoCater to Expand into Europe

When ezCater raised $100 million last month, the corporate catering company said it would use some of that money to expand internationally. True to its word, ezCater announced today that it is acquiring Paris-based GoCater to gain an immediate foothold in Europe. This is the first acquisition for ezCater and terms of the deal were not disclosed.

GoCater currently operates in both France and Germany, where, according to the press announcement, the company has “hundreds of catering partners” that serve “thousands of business customers.” GoCater was founded in 2016 by Giorgio Riccò and Stephen Leguillon, who spun it out of La Belle Assiette, a European platform for booking private chefs that operates in France, Belgium, Luxemobourg, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

EzCater Co-founder and CEO, Stefania Mallett told me in an interview that Riccò and Leguillon’s experience growing La Belle Assiette in Europe made GoCater an attractive acquisition target. Europe isn’t a monolith; each country has their own regulations and culture that need to be properly understood before a company can break into their markets. “With GoCater we are getting a team on the ground in Europe with experience operating in multiple countries,” Mallett said, “That is very powerful for us.”

The acquisition comes at a time when the corporate catering market is maturing and going through its own growing pains. This year has seen a lot of activity in the space with Square acquiring Zesty, EAT Club acquiring Farm Hill, and Peach laying off 33 percent of its staff. Other corporate catering services like Hungry, ZeroCater and Platterz have all received funding, but none nearly as much as ezCater.

EzCater claims to be the biggest corporate catering company in the U.S., and as noted, the company raised a whopping $100 million funding round last month. With a warchest brimming with cash, Mallett said it was “Time to grow like crazy and widen the gap.”

For now, GoCater will continue to operate as GoCater in Europe until trademark and other related issues are sorted out. European expansion is bound to be a topic of discussion with Michelle Smart, ezCater’s VP of Partner Operations, when she speaks at our Smart Kitchen Summit this October (get your tickets now!).

Corporate Catering Service ezCater Raises $100M, Eyes International Expansion

Online business catering service, ezCater, has raised $100 million in Series D funding, the company will announce on Tuesday. The new investment is led by Wellington Management Company with participation from existing investors ICONIQ Capital, Insight Venture Partners and others. This brings the total amount raised by ezCater to $170 million.

EzCater’s marketplace connects businesses with catering services and restaurants across the county, as well as offering a suite of products to help restaurants receive and manage orders and deliver large scale meals.

In a press statement, ezCater says that it will use the new funding to “deepen its products, and expand internationally.” According to VentureBeat, ezCater has not announced which countries will will expand into first.

The money also makes a very public statement that ezCater is not going anywhere anytime soon. This could be important to winning new and keeping existing clients as the corporate catering sector appears to be entering a state of flux. In just the past few months, Square acquired Zesty, EAT Club acquired Farm Hill, and Peach laid off 33 percent of its staff.

Plus, the sheer size of the round could put added pressure on rivals such as Platterz ($21.7 million raised), ZeroCater ($17.6 million raised), and Forkable ($813,000 reported, but final amount raised unknown), all of whom can now be outspent by ezCater.

As we’ve said before, there isn’t much corporate catering services can do to differentiate themselves to customers. At the end of the day, companies are trying to keep employees happy and employees don’t care who delivered the meal, only whether or not the food is good and on-time. EzCater’s war chest will now tubocharge its scaling, and help it outlast (or acquire) its smaller competition.