Foodee raises $6 million Series A to expand food delivery into U.S. market

Vancouver food delivery start-up Foodee has raised $6 million in Series A funding from BDC Capital to accelerate its growth into the U.S. market.
Foodee distinguishes itself from consumer-facing food delivery services by focusing on group business lunches, a market that the company estimates to be about $10 billion.
Orders can be placed in advance and delivered for group business meetings.
To date, Foodee has raised $10.5 million from both Canadian and U.S. investors, including Yaletown Venture Partners, Voyager Capital, and Structure Capital.
“Building on our success in Toronto, Vancouver, and our three pilot cities in the US, we are excited to continue our expansion plans to get quality food into boardrooms across North America, ” said Foodee CEO Ryan Spong. “On-demand food delivery may be a crowded space, but we’ve seen success through our focus on feeding corporate teams while encouraging the professional development that happens during lunchtime meetings.”
Foodee’s three U.S. pilot cities are Denver, Austin and Philadelphia.
The company hopes to launch in Atlanta and Minneapolis in March 2016, with four or five more U.S. launches planned for mid-2016.
Developing partnerships with more than restaurants in the five pilot markets Foodee has been working in, the company now has over 4,000 customers.
Foodee spotted a few issues in the business lunch market that it hopes to solve, including lack of menu variety, environmental impact (Foodee uses only biodegradable packaging), and meals that arrive either too early or too late.
The company has served more than half a million meals in North America for Facebook, Hootsuite, Goldcorp, Ernst and Young, Microsoft, and Mozilla among others.
“We’re proud to be giving employees at companies across North America access to their menu items from their favorite local restaurants,” said Foodee Director of Operations Wayne Webb. “In the upcoming months, we look forward to building new relationships with more companies and restaurateurs.”