Issue #48: Food Fundraising Galore

Originally, the plan this week was to write about the rise of social membership clubs in NYC (combination restaurants, networking, and co-working spaces). However, that will have to wait until next week, as the large players in the food capital markets had other plans. Three of the largest and fastest-growing players in the space made moves, so I very much felt obligated to summarize. Here is the breakdown:

• DoorDash Acquires Deliveroo for $4B - Deliveroo was founded in 2013, as a food delivery service in the United Kingdom. What once started as just food delivery, you can now get almost anything delivered, from groceries to pharmacy items, similar to DoorDash. Additionally, it now operates in France, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar, which is 6 fewer markets than it did at its peak. Part of the reason Deliveroo has struggled slightly, despite being a profitable company, is that its two largest competitors, Uber and Just Eat, have much deeper pockets. In a business where it is all about acquiring the most customers, the company with the deepest pockets usually wins. When Doordash came in with a $4B offer, it makes sense why Deliveroo took it. From a DoorDash perspective, these are new markets where the company has not previously operated. This acquisition will pair well with the Wolt acquisition that happened in 2021, which covers Central / Northern Europe. In addition to the normal integration challenges of any acquisition, the UK government previously rejected an Amazon takeover of Deliveroo. It will be interesting to follow along with what happens here, but all indications so far are that the deal will go through.

• Wonder Raises $600M In Additional Capital - Wonder, is a foodtech company started by Marc Lore that features multiple restaurants under one roof for pickup and delivery, Blue Apron meal kits, Tastemade content, delivery order fulfillment, and food delivery marketplaces apps. Back in Issue #41, I wrote a deep dive analyzing the playbook of its funnel, from customer acquisition to different food offerings depending on the occasion to last-mile fulfilment. Wonder covers the full value chain. Well, it turns out, unsurprisingly, maintaining that full value chain is very expensive. Following a $700M fundraise in March 2024 and an acquisition of a content producer, Tastemade, in March 2025, Wonder has raised an additional $600M to speed up its aggressive expansion plans, at a $7B valuation (unclear pre or post money but assuming it is post money). This fundraise was led by NEA, and included participation from existing shareholders Accel, Google Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, and Amex Ventures (very interesting Amex is involved - I hadn’t heard that before). Wonder has an aggressive target to hit of 90 stores by the end of the year, and currently it sits at 46. There are only 32 weeks in the year, so this will require multiple store openings per week to hit the 90. The expansion is focused on Philadelphia and Washington, DC, dense, urban markets where the presence isn’t that big yet. Between all the different properties together, Wonder has more than $2B in revenue. It may be tough to hit the 2025 store opening target, but the revenue from all the properties together is powerful.

• Doordash Acquires Seven Rooms For $1.2B - SevenRooms was founded in 2011 in NYC to serve as a CRM for restaurants. It helps restaurants, and other venues, book reservations, manage them, and collect information on guests. DoorDash has been expanding into the restaurant software / POS space, as it tries to immerse itself further in the food stack. In September, DoorDash rolled out a platform that allows merchants to essentially create their websites through DoorDash that are branded to the restaurant. This rollout also included phone ordering technology support. As it seeks growth outside the traditional marketplace, it is not a surprise SevenRooms was acquired. It will be interesting to see what part of the restaurant software stack DoorDash enters next. When will DoorDash release and roll out its POS?

• Uber Invests $700M in Trendyol Go - Trendyol Go is the leading food and grocery delivery platform in Turkey. Uber, which only has a presence in Turkey with its ride-share business, decided it needed a presence on the food side as well, and that the best way to obtain that presence was via an acquisition. It has acquired an 85% controlling stake. Trendyol Go has a fascinating back story, it is the food delivery arm of Trendyol Group, a fashion and retail eCommerce platform. Trendyol Group is interestingly owned by Alibaba. Despite the fashion roots, food delivery has been a success. In 2024, the company delivered 200M orders and had $2B in gross bookings. This acquisition comes at a very interesting time for Uber, where it is trying to balance the rollout of Waymo autonomous vehicles and how that will affect its food delivery experience (Waymo food delivery experience is very poor because the can’t bring it to your door). It will be interesting to follow Uber’s strategy for food delivery with autonomous vehicles.

Those were just four of the top headlines in the food capital markets this week. A lot going on! It will be exciting to follow along regardless.

Pickleball Takes Over Old Babies-R-Us Location

Pickleball is a trend that has taken over the country, and unlike many other fads, has persisted. However, in much of the country, it is hard to play pickleball year-round, despite the demand being there due to weather and temperature. At the same time, there are a lot of large buildings with high ceilings that used to be department stores, sitting empty. One of the leaders in the space is a franchise operator, Pickleball Kingdom, which works with franchisees across the country to run these locations. Pickleball Kingdom currently has 350 franchises and over 5,250 courts. In Manchester, CT, it is transforming a ~30k square foot former Babies ‘R’ Us store into 10 courts. A great use of vacant space and a great opportunity for malls with large food traffic declines to combat that with an activity people do frequently. Another exciting company in the franchise space to watch.

Rite Aid Declares Bankruptcy (Again)

In 2023, Rite Aid, the pharmacy and convenience store, decided to declare bankruptcy to help restructure for the future. That bankruptcy was resolved in Fall 2024. Unfortunately, the plan has not been working as it has already declared bankruptcy again last week. This time, the issue is that the front-end convenience business is not working despite the pharmacy being robust. If the pharmacy business is working, that means customers are coming into the store, but not converting to stock up on other items. It could be assortment, pricing, or occasion related, but it is clear across the industry, the pharmacy plus convenience store model is struggling mightily. Being smaller than Walgreens or CVS, it makes sense that Rite Aid is struggling the most, but the other two have had their fair share of struggles as well. It is unclear what the path forward here is for success, as it seems like many of their core customers have shifted away. Hopefully, a resolution emerges so that the 1,240 stores can continue operating.

Anthpo Launches Viral IRL Crocs Marketing

Thanks to my good friend Nate (who writes a great newsletter on the creator space), I was introduced to YouTuber Anthpo. Back then, he was a college senior making fun, yet introspective videos, with a looming countdown clock to the end of his college career, when that would be the end of his channel. This content amassed over 1M subscribers, and after a brief hiatus, he is back. Some of his more recent works you may be familiar with are the Timothee Chalamet look-alike contest in Washington Square Park and the guy who ate a whole container of cheese balls in Union Square, among other look-alike contests in Washington Square Park. While that part is fascinating, I will leave others more well-versed in the creator space, like Nate, to opine on it. What caught my eye from a retail-ish POV recently, was the campaign he did with Crocs.

I highly recommend watching the video, but here is a quick summary. Building on other experiences where he built out “imaginary worlds/people”, like cheeseball man, he created “Kid with crocs”, an account that went around and put Crocs on IRL things, like statues, accompanied by a Crocs superhero. In addition to this, fitting in perfectly to the fun aura around Crocs, the collab felt so genuine. In the video, he shares that Crocs asked him what he wanted to do, not the other way around. This collaboration method is the best way to work with creators/influencers. Cater your brand to them, not the other way around! Plus, leveraging physical space and getting people together for an experience, a recipe for success equating in 700k followers and countless impressions.

VF Lays Off 400 Employees

VF, well known for its Vans, North Face, and Timberland brands, among others, announced that it will be laying off 400 employees across brands and regions. This layoff is the third round in the past year. These layoffs come at a critical juncture for VF, who is amidst a turnaround attempt after years of success. In October 2023, it launched Project Reinvent, which is focusing on enhancing brand building and sales strategies in North America and boosting revenue results at its Vans brand, its flagship brand. For the first time in years, revenue grew year over year. Earnings will be announced this month, so it will be interesting to deep dive further into the profitability side. Hopefully, this hiccup is the final one, and the growth of these iconic brands can resume.

• Summary: Rowdy Rooster is capitalizing on the fried chicken / chicken sandwich trend using an Indian flavor mix. It also features bowls and fries, plus offers catering, a big boon to restaurants.

• My Take: The fast-casual scene has seen a ton of growth across cuisines recently. However, Indian food is the one area that has not seen the growth, despite being a super popular cuisine in the United States and having a rice + sauce + protein dishes that could do well in fast casual format.

• Founder(s): Unknown

• Funding: Unknown

• Number of Locations: 2 in NYC 

• Social Media Following: 16k on Instagram

Additional Links:

1. Tapestry, parent company of Coach and Kate Spade, saw a record quarter (read more here)

2. Target sees success from express self-checkout lanes (read more here)

3. Gopuff launches multipacks and large formats focused on driving savings for customers (read more here)

4. Crocs revises financial performance guidance based on uncertainty around tariffs and the subsequent consumer reaction to that (read more here)

5. Allbirds is betting on a refreshed store layout and product mix to return to revenue growth (read more here)

6. Nuveen Real Estate Raises $320 Million for US Cities Retail Fund to invest in areas with grocers and other frequent retail shopping (read more here)

7. Alcohol may not be dead (check out this chart here)

8. Warby Parker has its first quarter of positive net income since becoming public (read more here)

9. ChatGPT launches shopper-friendly initiatives (read more here)

10. Ebay launches conversational AI shopper assistant (read more here)

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