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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Food Tech News: Synthetic “Wine,” Peach Raises Funds for Office Lunch Delivery

The Spoon team is packing their bags for New York, where we’ll be for next week’s Customize summit! If you’re interested in the effect that personalization will have on the food system — in CPG, grocery, nutrition and the home kitchen — you should really join us. Good news! Spoon readers can snag one of the last remaining tickets for 15 percent off with code SPOON15.

But first, let’s catch up on some intriguing food tech tidbits from the week. Our latest dispatch includes stories on office lunch delivery fundraises, a new AI accelerator, and synthetic wine grown in a lab. Enjoy!

Endless West debuts synthetic “wine” and “sake”
Two years ago Endless West came out with Glyph, a spirit that’s constructed on a molecular level to taste like whiskey, without the aging. This week the San Francisco-based startup unveiled two new products: molecular wine and sake. The products, which are made in a lab, don’t contain any grapes — instead, they consist only of water, ethanol, and chemical compounds which mimic the flavors and aromas of the beverages. If you’re curious, you can buy Endless West’s first wine and sake products on their website.

Danone and Microsoft team up for AI accelerator
CPG giant Danone and Microsoft announced the launch of AI Factory for Agrifood, a startup accelerator targeting early-stage companies working on sustainable food and beverage projects (via FoodNavigator). The program is part of Microsoft’s AI Factory, so it will focus on companies leveraging AI. Target projects include regenerative agriculture, food waste reduction and supply chain optimization. Applications have closed and selections will be announced on March 6.

Photo: Peach

Office lunch delivery company Peach raises $5 million
A new SEC filing reveals that Peach, the Seattle-based startup offering discounted office lunch delivery, has raised $5 million as part of a larger round (h/t Geekwire). The company, which was founded in 2014, has raised $15.75 million thus far. This news comes two years after Peach cut a third of its staff in an attempt reach profitability.


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.

Peach Lays of 33 Percent of Staff

Peach, the Seattle-based corporate lunch delivery service, has laid off 33 percent of its staff, according to Geekwire, which broke the story.

Peach CEO Nishant Singh told Geekwire the layoffs were a result of a “sales experiment” wherein the company ratcheted up its sales efforts. Evidently that didn’t pan out and Peach let go of roughly a dozen employees.

The Peach news comes at a time of adjustment in the corporate catering sector. Last week EAT Club acquired Farm Hill, and last month Square bought Zesty for its Caviar catering service.

I use the term adjustment instead of retraction as there is still money going into corporate meal delivery. ZeroCater raised $12 million this month, and earlier this year Canada-based Platterz raised $15 million (USD).

The difficulty for any startup in the lunch delivery space is that there really isn’t a huge point of differentiation around which you can build your company.

Other than competing on price — or perhaps a slightly better user experience — there are not a whole lot of opportunities to innovate. People order food. Food gets delivered. Food gets eaten. Repeat. Office workers will care more about the food that’s delivered than who delivered it.

Layoffs suck. But Peach, which has raised $10.7 million, said the layoffs would return the company to profitability. If it is profitable, the reduction in headcount could make Peach a more attractive M&A target.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that ZeroCater made their own food for delivery. We regret the error.