Chewse provides family-style corporate catering and a curated in-person dining experience, employing drivers and meal hosts who receive training and benefits to improve service quality. The company uses machine learning and algorithms to learn employee food preferences and create custom meal schedules. Chewse initially launched in Los Angeles, paused operations for just over a year to focus on market profitability in San Francisco, then relaunched in Los Angeles and expanded into Palo Alto and San Jose. It currently serves hundreds of customers across three markets and has partnered with local restaurants for its Silicon Valley launch. Financially, Chewse announced a $19 million fundraising round that brings total funding to more than $30 million. The company says its investment in hosts, drivers, and technology is intended to drive superior customer retention despite higher costs, and it plans to double the number of markets where it operates within the next year. Chewse faces competition in the corporate meal space from players such as Zesty (acquired by Square for Caviar) and ZeroCater. Chewse operates a corporate catering and office meal-delivery service that handles last-mile logistics including pickup, delivery and presentation. After several years refining its playbook while operating primarily in San Francisco, the company re-launched service in Los Angeles as its next market. Over the last 16 months since its Series A, Chewse tripled sales and increased margins by roughly 50%, and the company is now profitable. Chewse differentiates by taking on delivery logistics itself and working with a curated group of restaurant partners rather than relying on partner restaurants for last-mile delivery. The company treats delivery drivers and servers as hourly employees with benefits such as paid sick leave and internal advancement opportunities, which it says improves retention and customer experience. Chewse is focused on proving positive unit economics in new markets while maintaining its culture and service quality as it scales. Chewse provides a SaaS-based platform for corporate meals, delivering family-style trays and platters from local restaurants via an online ordering experience. The company is led by CEO/Founder Tracy Lawrence and CTO Jeff Schenck and is currently present in San Francisco. Chewse raised $5.9M in a Series A financing to support continued expansion. The round was led by The Foundry Group with participation from Andy Appelbaum, 500 Startups, Galvanize, and Telegraph Hill Capital. The company said it is using the funds to continue to expand operations and is hiring. The fundraising was reported on 11/09/2015. Chewse provides one-click catering for offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco, handling ordering, portioning, dietary restrictions and delivery timing. The service pre-vets partner restaurants and meals for taste, portion size, serving style and arrangement to reduce friction for office managers. Clients give a budget, headcount and dietary notes and Chewse builds and delivers the meal at a predetermined time. The company partners with restaurants such as American Grilled Cheese Kitchen, Rosamunde Sausage Grill and Mission Picnic, and counts customers including StyleSeat, 42Floors, inDinero and Anyperk. After serving its 100,000th meal, Chewse is raising additional capital to expand its catering service. The article frames the raise as seed funding totaling $1.7 million. Chewse operates a curated office-catering marketplace that matches office admins with restaurants that already do catering and delivery. The service emphasizes a vetted selection of restaurants, group-ordering workflows, and support for dietary restrictions to simplify corporate meal orders. Restaurants handle preparation and fulfillment while Chewse focuses on curation and customer acquisition. Chewse launched in July in Los Angeles, has grown rapidly in that market, and reports about 70% of users place a second order; clients include Wells Fargo and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The three-person team is now based in San Francisco and plans to hire more staff and expand into new markets within six to nine months. The company raised seed funding to support that expansion.

Total raised

$35M

Funding rounds

5

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Dec 2018