U.K.-based corporate catering startup, Feedr, has raised a £1.5 million (~$1.92M USD) pre-Series A round of funding led by Episode 1, according to TechCrunch. This brings the total amount raised by Feedr to £2.1M (~$2.69M USD).
Feedr works with local restaurants to create a rotating daily menu for office workers at participating companies. Employees can pay for lunches themselves or get a subsidy through their company. Feedr then coordinates the logistics and delivery of ordered food to the office. Providing that type of service in and of itself is not that remarkable. Companies like Forkable here in the U.S. do much the same thing in the U.S., allowing employees to order their own meals from restaurant menus.
The Feeder news stood out because the overall corporate catering space has been so quiet lately. There was the Oh My Greens funding announcement in October, but that was just a formal announcement of all the money it had raised since 2016. For the most part, there really hasn’t been any news coming out of the corporate catering sector in the past few months.
The first half of the year was a much different story for startups wanting to feed hungry employees. Hungry raised $1.5 million. ZeroCater raised $12 million. And ezCater raised a whopping $100 million. There was also consolidation as Square bought Zesty, EAT Club acquired Farm Hill (and ceased operating in NYC), ezCater bought French company GoCater, and Peach laid off 33 percent of its staff.
I expect we’ll see more consolidation in 2019 as smaller players are weeded out and gobbled up by those with more funding. We’ll also need to keep an eye on the rapidly growing Uber Eats, which earlier this month launched Uber Eats for Business to deliver office meals, especially if the company gets you your burrito by drone.
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