This monthly column highlights the most interesting acquisitions, financings and partnerships within the Food Tech & Media ecosystem – digital content, social, local, mobile, grocery, e-commerce, delivery, ordering, payments, marketing and analytics – to give you insights into the latest funding and growth trends.

The first quarter of 2014 closed out with over $300 million of private investment in the food tech and media sector ($100m in March, 12 deals), and twelve notable acquisitions (four in March). As with last month, there was a noticeable shift towards larger Series A and Series B rounds in March, with only three Seed stage deals and an average raise of $8.3 million.

There has been a lot of talk about the momentum of food tech in the press, here are a few good reads. Also in the news, an addition to the IPO pipeline was unveiled: GoDaddy (which has been increasingly focused on – and acquiring – services for small local businesses) is reportedly preparing to file for an IPO, according to the NY Times.

Four companies entered the public markets since the beginning of March, representing a combined $6.1 billion of market capitalization (at offerings). GrubHub and Coupons.com were both embraced by investors, as the former priced above the upwardly-revised $23-$25 range at $26, and closed up 30.8% on the first day of trading, resulting in a market cap of $2.7 billion. Coupons.com also priced above the $12-$14 range at $16, and popped 87.5% in the first day of trading to close at a market cap of $2.1 billion. Everyday Heath has seen mixed reactions, as the stock dipped 3.6% below the IPO price on the first day of trading but has recovered to hover close to the offering price of $14, and Just Eat’s stock (on the LSE) has been trending down since the IPO.

The industry was abuzz this month with developments around mobile and location-based technology, as a number of incumbents are finally implementing mobile initiatives at an increasing pace. Wendy’s and Burger King both rolled out mobile payment options, and McDonalds is continuing to test the feature. PayPal continues on its mission to liaise between the online and offline worlds with its new plan to connect mobile ads to in-store visits through a partnership with Placed, a mobile location tracking firm.

TripAdvisor announced plans for a mobile travel guide, as it faces increasing competition from Foursquare and Google Now. Speaking of Foursquare, the company launched a new Twitter ad product that that invites users to tweet marketing messages when they check into businesses (which requires a minimum campaign commitment of $100k). And on that note, Instagram (which is owned by Facebook), recently began testing integration with Facebook Places, Facebook’s local venue database, to potentially replace Foursquare in the future.

Editors Note: A previous version of this article did not include the Mobivity/SmartReceipt acquisition.

M&A

XO Group Acquires Gojee. The New York-based recipe and fashion aggregation website was acquired by XO Group, the umbrella group for women-focused sites like The Knot, The Bump, The Nest and Wedding Channel. The Gojee website will remain post-acquisition, however sans the fashion component, as it appears the food vertical was the compelling draw. TechCrunch reports that “the Gojee team [will] work on refreshing all of XO’s dated web properties, with a specific focus on updating the mobile experience.” Also according to TechCrunch, the company had explored sales to several other companies including Yahoo, Buzz Feed, Yelp and The RealReal.

Announced: 3/21/14  Terms: Undisclosed  Previous Investment: $2.8m Series A, $1.2m Seed  Founded: June 2010

Mobivity Acquires SmartReceipt. The Santa Barbara, CA-based “smart” receipts SaaS provider transforms traditional restaurant and retail transaction receipts into coupons and offers, and post-acquisition will expand Mobivity’s software deployment to over 17,000 restaurant and retail locations. Rather than integrating directly into POS systems, SmartReceipt bypasses the POS by transmitting printed receipt data to the cloud and enabling businesses to store transactional data and dynamically control the receipt content in real-time. Mobivity plans to integrate the SmartReceipt solution with its SMS marketing technologies, as well as the loyalty solution, Stampt, which Mobivity acquired in December 2012. Additionally, the company may further integrate the technology beyond its current use to assist retailers to continue to retain their most loyal customers.

Announced: 3/13/14  Terms: Approx $3m ($2.2m cash + stock) plus earnout  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: 2004

Just Eat Acquires Meal2Go. Weeks ahead of its IPO, which valued Just Eat at £1.47 billion ($2.44 billion), the UK-based food ordering startup acquired a U.K. restaurant tech company that created the first electronic point-of-sale (EPOS) system for managing takeout orders in the independent restaurant sector in the UK. While the acquisition only adds 1,100 Birmingham-based restaurants to Just Eat’s existing partners, it allows Just Eat to expand the reach of the EPOS technology throughout the 13 countries in which it operates, something that could give it a leg up on competitors like Delivery Hero and FoodPanda.

Announced: 3/04/14  Terms: Not Disclosed  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: 2006

Berkshire Partners Takes Majority Stake In Catalina Marketing. The St. Petersburg, Florida-based CPG marketing company provides personalized digital media solutions for more than 25,000 grocery, drug and department stores across the United States. This is a secondary buyout from Hellman & Friedman, which took Catalina private for about $1.7 billion in October 2007. Hellman & Friedman helped transform the company from a grocery channel coupon provider to an omni-channel digital media platform.

Announced: 3/03/14  Terms: $2.5b  Previous Investment: $1.7b by Hellman & Friedman  Founded: 1983

FUNDING

Kitchensurfing Raises $15m. The worldwide community marketplace enables consumers to connect directly with both professional and amateur chefs to hire them for a variety of occasions, including family meals, celebratory meals, exotic cuisine or in-home cooking classes. In an exclusive, Fortune‘s Erin Griffith offers some thoughts to the momentum behind Kitchensurfing, which includes increasing investor appetite for the food category (as we have been documenting), but also the “celebritization” of chefs by a growing number of consumers, as well as the Airbnb effect which has “made people more comfortable conducting real-world transactions with Internet strangers.” The new funding will be used to expand into new geographies and grow its community of chefs and diners.

Announced: 3/31/14  Valuation: $40m (per Fortune)  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Tiger Global Management (lead), Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital  Previous Investment: $3.5m Series A; $1m Seed  Founded: March 2012

Ricebook Raises $7m. The Beijing, China-based social mobile app helps users take photos of their food, and then share them with friends over social networks such as Sina’s Twitter like service, Weibo. It also helps users find restaurants nearby. The company says it will use the proceeds on staff expansion and general operations.

Announced: 3/31/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: IDG Capital (lead), Ceyuan Ventures  Previous Investment: $1.5m Seed  Founded: 2013

Sprig Raises $10m. The San Francisco-based subscription food delivery service makes and delivers locally sourced meals to local customers. One of Sprig’s distinguishing factors is that customers don’t need to order days or hours in advance; the company’s goal is to deliver the meal 20 minutes of ordering, on average. The new funding will be used towards the customer experience for customers in San Francisco, expansion to new markets and for hiring. According to PandoDaily, the investor interest interest in Sprig signals a larger trend; “Greylock’s investment represents big things and not just for Sprig. It’s eight figure validation of the nascent food preparation and delivery startup realm as a whole… If other investors weren’t paying attention to these companies, they’re going to sit up and take notice now.”

Announced: 3/27/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Greylock Partners (lead), Accel Partners, Battery Ventures  Previous Investment: $1.7 Seed  Founded: April 2013

CircleUp Raises $14m. The San Francisco-based equity-based crowdfunding platform helps accredited investors find free access to private consumer-focused investments, making it easier for investors to identify, diligence and back companies they understand. Circleup focuses on food, personal care, pet product, apparel or retail/restaurant companies with $1-$10 million in revenue, which are looking to raise $100,000 to $2.0 million in growth equity. In addition to the fundraising platform, CircleUp has struck up some interesting partnerships, including a recent one with Virgin America to help identify new snacks and drinks to serve on flights. The company plans to use the capital for hiring, and to build new tools and services that will help investors and entrepreneurs make sense of what comprises a typical valuation in a consumer goods company within their category.

Announced: 3/26/14  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Canaan Partners (lead), Google Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Maveron and Rose Park Advisors  Previous Investment: $7.5m Series A; $1.5m Seed  Founded: October 2011

TouchBistro Raises $1.5m. The Toronto-based startup is a provider of mobile point-of-sale solutions and digital menus for the food and drink industry, and recently opened a NYC office. TechCrunch reports the company is targeting a “full doubling of its existing customer base (i.e., 2,000 plus clients) on the books by the end of next year.” The additional cash infusion should help the startup expand its offerings, with a planned San Francisco office opening later in 2014.

Announced: 3/26/14  Stage: Seed Extension  Participating Institutional Investors: Walden Venture Capital, Kensington Capital  Previous Investment: $4.5m Seed  Founded: 2010

Vend Raises $20m. The Auckland, New Zealand-based online point-of-sale software provider provides an HTML5 retail POS that works on any device or platform, enabling retailers to process sales, track inventory and manage customers. The software is currently in over 10,000 stores, in more than 100 countries, and the new funds will expand Vend’s presence in the North American market through new partnerships, customers and staff, as well as globally. The company is also expanding its channel of resellers and building on their list of industry partners, which currently include PayPal, Xero, Stitchlabs and Swarm.

Announced: 3/25/14  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Valar Ventures, Square Peg Capital  Previous Investment: $8m Series A; $1m seed  Founded: August 2009

Crowdtap Raises $5m. The New York-based social influence marketing platform provides a SaaS platform that allows marketers to influence conversations about brands (including Nestle and Kraft) across social media by inspiring crowds of consumers to create quality content and provide real-time insights. The company intends to use the funds for product expansion and hiring.

Announced: 3/20/14  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Foundry Group (lead), Tribeca Venture Partners, Alta Communications, The Mustang Group  Previous Investment: $7m Series A; $3m Seed  Founded: October 2009

Gigwalk Raises $10m. The San Francisco-based mobile workforce software provider allows CPGs to gain local visibility of in-store conditions. The company provides a public network of over 500,000 mobile-enabled independent contractors, helping brands and retailers better collaborate, find and fix retail execution problems and drive in-store sales. Gigwalk intends to use the funds to further develop and scale its platform, expand partnerships with consumer brands and retailers, as well as hire new people.

Announced: 3/20/14  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Nokia Growth Partners (lead), Randstad Holding, August Capital, Harrison Metal, SoftTech VC  Previous Investment: $6m Series A; $1.7m Seed  Founded: August 2010

Meican Raises $10m. The Beijing-based online food ordering service, which can be translated from Chinese as ‘the meal network’ or ‘good meal’ (depending on the source), features nearly 30,000 restaurants in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The company intends to use the funds to recruit people, improve products and add merchants. In conjunction with the funding, David Tang, director, general manager and partner of Nokia Growth Partners, will join the board of directors. Notably, there seems to be a scramble among prominent investors for the next Grubhub Seamless of China, as Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners invested $25m into Ele.me, and Highland Capital Partners invested $10m into Etaoshi in November of last year. 

Announced: 3/13/13  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Nokia Growth Partners (lead), Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Trust Bridge Partners  Previous Investment: Series A – “Several millions of dollars in investment from KPCB as well as CNY 1 million angel investment from the XhenFund”  Founded: 2010

Flypay Raises £1M. The London-based mobile payment startup allows users to check, split and pay their restaurant bill from their smartphones by scanning an on-table QR code/NFC tag to pull up the bill. The company will use the new capital to scale its technology, acquire new restaurant partners and further develop its product line.

Announced: 3/11/14  Stage: Seed  Participating Institutional Investors: Entree Capital  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: February 2013

Peek.com Raises $5m. The San Francisco, CA-based reservation and local discovery site (and app) allows travelers to discover and book fun things to do in new destinations. In addition to recommendations, the company provides real-time inventory of events and manages payment processing and scheduling. With the new funding, Peek plans to expand into new cities, add new activities in existing markets, launch on more consumer-facing platforms and extend features inits back-end merchant platform, Peek Professional.

Announced: 3/05/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Montage Ventures (lead), Expansion Venture Capital, Great Oaks Venture Capital  Previous Investment: $1.4m Seed  Founded: 2012

PARTNERSHIPS

PayPal partners with Placed to Connect Mobile Ads to In-Store Visits. PayPal has linked up with mobile location tracking firm Placed to connect the ads served through the PayPal ad network to real-world store visits. Placed has a panel of around 125,000 app users who agree to have their mobile location data tracked in exchange for gift cards, contest entries and other goodies.

GoDaddy Partners With Dwolla On New E-Invoicing Option For Small Businesses. Web host and small business service provider GoDaddy is teaming up with payments network Dwolla, to offer GoDaddy’s business customers an alternative to paper checks and competing online payment services like PayPal when invoicing their customers and vendors.

Fitbit Partners with HTC to Preload Their Fitness Software on All New HTC One Devices. The partnership allows HTC to offer Fitbit on the One in two ways: it can work instantly with the on-board suite of sensors HTC provides to track fitness levels without any additional hardware, or device owners can opt to buy some Fitbit hardware (including its scales and wearables) to increase the accuracy of the health tracking fed to the One.

WePopp Adds Restaurant Booking Via OpenTable. The new restaurant-booking feature within the WePopp app, which was created to help users plan events with friends, suggest three restaurants from OpenTable (although you can still add any restaurant of your choice), and once confirmed with the intended participants, users can convert that “popp” into a booking. WePopp has a similar affiliate arrangement for flights (Skyscanner) and hotel bookings (Booking.com).

INDUSTRY LANDSCAPE

As The Food Tech & Media ecosystem continues to see rapid change, Rosenheim Advisors created The Food Tech & Media Industry Map to help entrepreneurs, participants and investors understand this quickly evolving landscape.

Let us know about your recent or upcoming funding, partnerships or acquisitions here.

Check out the 2013 Annual Report and last month’s round-up.

Would you be interested in a round-up of agriculture-related funding, partnerships and acquisitions? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Food Tech Media Startup Funding, M&A and Partnerships: March 2014 appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

This annual report looks at the financing and acquisition trends in the Food Tech & Media ecosystem, which encompasses digital content, social, local, mobile, grocery, e-commerce, delivery, ordering, payments, marketing and analytics.

Over $2.8 Billion Invested in 2012-2013

With increasing deal activity and deal sizes, the food-related tech and food-related digital media space has continued to gain momentum. In 2013, over $1.6 billion was invested into U.S-based private companies in this ecosystem through 148 investments (versus $1.2 billion and 136, respectively, in 2012). Excluding later-stage investment rounds from consumer internet companies that have a relevant food component (Instagram, LivingSocial, Pinterest, Evernote, Fab.com), $930 million was invested into private companies in this ecosystem in 2013 (versus $560 million in 2012).

This industry is still very much in growth mode, as 65 percent of the investment rounds were less than $5 million (excluding those five late-stage deals listed above). On average, however, companies in this space secured larger investments in 2013 vs. 2012 ($5.6 million vs. $4.6 million in 2012), which is due to a combination of larger Seed/Series A rounds and more companies in 2013 pushing past the Series A crunch to later stage investments. Restaurant-related technology won the most attention from both investors and acquirers with 54 percent of the investments (representing $453.1 million across 76 deals), and 51 percent of M&A activity.

M&A Activity Increased 44% in 2013

M&A activity was steady throughout the year, with 46 M&A deals (up from 32 in 2012). OpenTable was the top acquirer with four acquisitions (FoodSpotting, JustChalo, Rezbook and QuickCue), followed by Pinterest with two acquisitions (Punchfork and Livestar), and Yahoo with two acqui-hires (Alike and Jybe). In terms of disclosed price, UnderArmour’s acquisition of MapMyFitness for $150m in November was the largest acquisition of the year, with GoDaddy’s $70m acquisition of Locu coming in second. The GrubHub Seamless merger was also significant, though the terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

IPOs on The Horizon

In the public markets, RetailMeNot was the only company related to the food tech and media ecosystem to IPO in 2013. The stock has been well-received, and it closed 37 percent above the IPO price on December 31, 2013 with a market capitalization of $1.5 billion.

As we consider the IPO prospects for 2014, however, the pipeline is padded with a number of companies that are relevant to this space, including Grubhub Seamless, Coupons.com, Pinterest, Square, Jawbone, Gilt Groupe, and potentially Evernote (but more likely to be another year or two). Successful IPOs among the 2014 cohort will be meaningful in that they will validate overarching trends related to the food tech and media industries. But there is a more direct implication for startups in the space: the public markets unlock a new acquisition currency, and as more opportunities for successful exits (via acquisition) become available, it is likely that investors will continue to increase their stake in this sector.

(1) Adjusted; excludes investment data for: Evernote, Fab.com, Instagram, LivingSocial and Pinterest.
(2) Does not include M&A deals.
Note: Data for U.S.-based companies only. Investment data does not include any M&A data or public market offerings. “Food Tech/Media” includes the following sectors: CPG/Grocery Loyalty & Coupon, Digital Content, Recipes, CPG/Grocery Ad Tech, Product Guides, eCommerce, B2B Commerce, Online Grocery, Catering Marketplace & Meal Delivery, Online/Offline Community, Online Ordering/Delivery, Restaurant/Food Search, Reviews, Restaurant Deals, Coupons, Loyalty, Online Marketing and Advertising, Ordering / Payment / Checkout, Reservations / Queue Management.

INDUSTRY LANDSCAPE

As The Food Tech & Media ecosystem continues to see rapid change, we created The Food Tech & Media Industry Map to help entrepreneurs, participants and investors understand this quickly evolving landscape.

Let us know about your recent or upcoming funding, partnerships or acquisitions here.

Check out our detailed December 2013 Food Tech Media Startup Funding, M&A Partnerships Report.

The post 2013 Food Tech Media Funding & Acquisition Trends Report appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

What if you could you could scan your food to get a complete picture of its calories, ingredients and allergens, all in just 3 seconds? Welcome to the future, folks. TellSpec, a revolutionary food scanning device, is on its way to making this possible.

It’s often difficult to know exactly what’s in your food, which can have serious implications for anyone with food allergies or other health issues. Nutritional labeling offers a limited amount of information, but it is hard to understand and is not always accurate or complete. For example, the FDA does not require chemicals like mercury to be included on labels, but its consumption can have severe health implications, like neurological damage and memory loss. Food scanning apps like ScanVert, Fooducate and ShopWell make food shopping easier and more transparent, but they would not be able to monitor how much mercury you are consuming.

Which is why Isabel Hoffmann launched Tellspec after her daughter developed food and chemical allergies that were so severe she had to take a year sick leave from school. With a background as a mathematician, computer scientist and software developer, Hoffmann knew there had to be a better way. And after a little digging, she found a Canadian manufacturer that makes affordable chip spectrometers that work in a hand-held device, and then she got to work.

How It Works

TellSpec has three components: a scanner, analysis engine algorithm and mobile app.

When someone scans a food item, the device beams a low powered laser at the food and then measures the reflected light with a chip spectrometer. As soon as the photons (particles of light) from the laser hit the molecules, they get excited and lower energy photons reflect back, with a different wave lengths depending upon which molecules they hit. The spectrometer then sorts and counts the wavelengths and transmits them through the smart phone via bluetooth to the cloud-based analysis engine.

This engine processes the photon wavelengths through the learning algorithm and is able to determine the composition of the ingredients in the food. It then feeds that composition information to the TellSpec mobile app where the user can then view and interact with things like calories, ingredients and chemicals, as well as target intake and a health survey.

Every food scan improves TellSpec’s learning algorithm. When someone scans an unknown food, for example, the algorithm analyzes and deconstructs its composition. It then cross-references this data with ingredient information already in the database to produce its nutrition and ingredient information, which is then incorporated into the algorithm for future scans.

Funding

In October 2013, the company launched an Indiegogo campaign to build working TellSpec prototypes and raised nearly 4 times its goal. Building on its initial traction, the team is now looking to raise a $5-6 million seed round by the end of March, which Hoffmann is confident about securing given the amount of investor interest they’ve already had.

The device will hit the market in August 2014 for $350-$400, but Hoffmann hopes demand will drive the price down to $50 in a few years, Mashable reports.

The TellSpec API

This company is smart. One of its Indiegogo perks is access to the TellSpec software development kit. For a $690 pledge, donors, mostly developers and technologists, get access to TellSpec’s food database, app source code and the API for TellSpec’s analysis engine. Developers can both test foods to grow TellSpec’s global database and leverage the API to build or enhance their own apps. One donor, a Taiwanese developer, scientist and dialysis specialist, even reached out about leveraging the technology to perform quick, non-invasive urine tests, Hoffman tells me.

Users

Contrary to Hoffmann’s assumption that the product would appeal most to food allergy sufferers, calorie counters turned out to be the largest category of early adopters. The number one user request so far has been calorie display – something that Hoffmann didn’t even want to include initially – followed by metabolic syndrome and weight loss. Chemicals are of the least concern to the general population right now, she says.

Next Steps

For now the device initially gives all users the same information about their food. If users select gluten information, for example, the algorithm will start including it in their food analysis. Developers working with the TellSpec team are pushing for the interface to allow users to fill out a profile at registration, which would contain a series of questions to allow for customization from the get-go. But Hoffmann worries that the potential food education component of the device – chemicals and toxins that users may not even be aware of – may be lost if users can customize the interface at registration.

Eventually, however, she hopes to leverage the user data to build a massive database of food information that, if GPS enabled, could help stave potential public health epidemics. Some day, for example, the data could show a sudden increase in gastrointestinal symptoms within a certain radius, and indicate that there may be a food or water safety issue at play.

“It’s about time we have a clean food revolution, [and] keep ourselves, our bodies healthy,” says Hoffmann. “The few of us that know about this need to do something. We are here to make everyone evolve.”

The post TellSpec Scans Your Food, Reveals Calories, Ingredients & Allergens appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

From payments to ordering to engagement, the restaurant industry is seeing its fair share of food tech innovation. Much of the innovation seems to be targeted towards large chains who are often earlier adopters of technology, but this innovation foreshadows what could be around the corner for small quick service restaurants (QSR). We decided to take a look at one of the technology companies that’s raised a lot of money to make waves in the restaurant space.

Founded by computer graphic and 3-D animation pioneer Paul Sidlo in 2002, EMN8 offers a selection of customized digital meal ordering and customer engagement services for QSRs. Through online and mobile meal ordering systems, digital kiosks, and call centers, restaurants can update menus universally, suggest add-ons at the point of purchase to increase the average bill per customer, and potentially reduce staff costs by introducing digital menus. EMN8’s technology also lets restaurants track purchase histories so customers can easily reorder previous menu favorites. All of its services create robust data that restaurants can use to analyze customer preferences.

As we noted in our monthly Food Tech Media Startup Funding roundup, in June, ENM8 announced it had acquired Snapfinger, an online and mobile ordering platform for casual dining restaurants. Snapfinger’s latest tool allows in-store diners to open tickets in the restaurant’s point-of-sale (POS) system with their personal mobile devices, which give restaurants more customer data regarding dine-in and take-out meal preferences. Additionally, such technology could reduce service times for customers. The company also announced it had raised $50 million in growth funding, lead by Bass Associates and Allegis Capital, to make the acquisition.

EMN8 was already a major player among the crowded meal-ordering space, working with restaurant giants like Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, Jack in the Box, and Yum! along with smaller chains such as Sizzler and The Counter. By acquiring Snapfinger, ENM8 now provides its services to an increased share of the QSR and casual dining segment. “We really understand the challenges that multi-unit restaurant chains face, including how to balance corporate- and franchise-level initiatives,” says EMN8’s Chief Marketing Officer Hope Neiman in an interview with Food+Tech Connect.

Like MenuDrive and RRT, EMN8 can integrate with the vast majority of POS systems, such as Micros, Radiant, and PAR. What sets the company apart, however, is its ability to act as the sole interface with customers across all channels—web, mobile, in-store, and telephone. “EMN8 helps our clients develop more integrated customer relationship models so that all of their communications are focused no matter which service or platform that customer came through,” says Neiman. This unified touchpoint between the restaurant and customer aims to increase revenue and encourage repeat customer transaction. As such, EMN8 is seeing a lot of interest in its loyalty and offer engines from clients.

Digital ordering accounts for a growing percentage of sales for some companies who have already embraced the technology, representing approximately a third of all Domino’s US orders, for example. Restaurant startups like Sweetgreen are also embracing mobile payment apps and seeing significant adoption and engagement. Ultimately, EMN8 seeks to revolutionize the restaurant industry landscape through further technological enhancements in the mobile payment arena and improved customer engagement models. “I think there’s a big shift in a lot of the technology for ordering really becoming very impactful for guests,” says Nieman.

The post EMN8 Ups Its Digital Ordering and Engagement Game appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

From home cooking to the restaurant experience, technology-focused food startups are enhancing the way consumers engage with food. These startups are creating significant value for consumers and notable opportunities for restaurants and brands to better understand and provide value to their customers. As the food tech sector matures, we are seeing an increasing number of these companies being funded or acquired by industry players. This monthly column highlights the most interesting acquisitions, financings and partnerships within the Food Tech & Media ecosystem – digital content, social, local, mobile, e-commerce, payments, marketing and analytics – to give you insights into the latest funding and growth trends.

The summer continued to heat up on the fundraising front, as August was a surprisingly fruitful month for participants in the food tech & media space. Fifteen companies raised over $110m during the month, with a noticeable majority of the companies progressing beyond the Series A stage. There were also a number of high-profile deals among the established consumer internet companies, with Glam Media and GrubHub Seamless inching closer to IPOs, Groupon acquiring Plumfare and announcing major POS partnerships, Facebook and OpenTable teaming up, Yelp’s continued bolstering of its commerce platform, and GoDaddy’s new SMB service platform substantiated by its acquisition of Locu.

While catching up on reading over Labor Day, I read two articles that are especially relevant to entrepreneurs (and investors) in the hyperlocal B2C space, aka consumer-facing restaurant/bar/retail apps. Whether the business involves reviews, social networks, discovery, ordering, payments, delivery, gifting, loyalty or marketing, these articles should be required reading for newcomers, as they offer important lessons and perspectives from two struggling founders.

The first, written by UPlanMe co-founder Sean Barkulis is entitled “Why Your Consumer-Oriented Hyperlocal Startup Is Going to Fail.” It details the progression of the company’s business model, as well as the key flaws in his initial business plan (which are indeed common among companies in this space) – including “the app is going to need a massive local sales force to earn revenue.” The second article details the brutally, and refreshingly, honest chronicle of a mobile ordering startup, aptly entitled, “The Decline And Fall Of Flowtab, A Startup Story.” Co-founder Kyle Hill explains the team’s motivation for pure transparency, stating “the last two years have been a huge learning experience, and we believe the real failure would be not sharing our story with the world.” You’ll notice from the 200+ comments on the story that readers appreciated the candid perspective.

M&A

GoDaddy Acquires Locu. Building upon the partnership we discussed in June, the SF-based real-time, hyper-local database startup will bolster GoDaddy’s local business data distribution platform, advancing the web hosting company’s strategy “to deliver effortlessly beautiful digital identities that help small businesses get more customers.” GoDaddy said Locu will continue to operate out of their San Francisco and Cambridge offices and operate the brand independently (for now). Businesses have been paying approximately $25 per month for Locu’s services, thus it will be interesting to see if GoDaddy will continue to charge a similar fee, or incorporate it into a broader package – especially as GoDaddy begins a massive rebranding effort to establish itself as a worldwide platform for small businesses.

Announced: 8/19/13  Terms: $70m in cash and stock (plus earnouts)  Previous Investment: $4m Series A, $600k Seed, Institutional investors included: Quotidian Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, Lowercase Capital, Lightbank, SV Angel.  Founded: 2011

Groupon Acquires Plumfare. As Groupon continues to build out its restaurant-focused services, it acquired the SF-based mobile gifting/discovery platform, which encourages users to send photos of their restaurant meals to friends (via SMS, email, or Facebook) as a symbol of a gift. The company, which recently expanded its focus to include gift experiences for all types of local businesses, takes a cut of the transaction when the gift recipient redeems it. Rather than simply publicizing deals broadly to the public, Plumfare’s approach to local deals focuses on word of mouth (in the form of gifts) from existing customers. It appears the gifting platform will continue to operate as it is incorporated into the Groupon platform, but unclear whether it will continue to use the Plumfare brand.

Announced: 8/12/13  Terms: Not disclosed  Previous Investment: Angel Institutional investors included: Venrock, FF Angel.  Founded: January 2012

Zero Point Zero Productions Acquires Food Republic Inc. The award-winning New York-based production company (best known for producing Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations) acquired the “site for men who want to eat and drink well, and to live smart,” to anchor Zero Point Zero’s new digital content portfolio, which is expected to launch in 2014. The still-to-be-named entity will be comprised of food and lifestyle websites and content, and will also include several YouTube channels and web video series, plus Steven Rinella’s MeatEater website and a new partnership with cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

Announced: 8/12/13  Terms: Not Disclosed  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Launched: May 2011

FUNDING

Belly Raises $12.1m. The Chicago-based customer loyalty and marketing platform for restaurants and retailers provides a technology platform with an in-store tablet, marketing materials and back-end support and analytics, as well as a software tool to integrate email, social media and mobile marketing campaigns. Consumers carry a universal Belly card, available in either physical form or on a mobile device that they can scan at a dedicated Belly iPad at locations within the merchant network. Interestingly, one of the investors in this round is a Belly client, 7-Eleven, which recently created a venture arm called 7-Ventures that is focused on new products and services in the food and beverage industry, as well as about emerging retail business models. According to the Chicago Tribune, with this investment the venture firm is particularly interested in learning “how the functioning and benefits of a loyalty network – one comprising multiple merchants – might differ from a loyalty program tailored to a specific retailer.” The company will use the first tranche of the Series B funding to add employees to its current staff, invest in its core products and expand in existing markets.

Announced: 8/28/13  Stage: Series B-1  Participating Institutional Investors: New Enterprise Associates, Andreessen Horowitz, DAG Ventures, Lightbank, Cisco and 7-Ventures, LLC (a subsidiary of 7-Eleven, Inc.)  Previous Investment: $10m Series B, $2.5m Series A, $375k Seed  Founded: August 2011

Naked Wines Raises $10m. The UK-based customer-funded online wine retailer (with operations in the U.S. and Australia) allows customers (aka “Angels”) to sponsor independent winemakers through a monthly contribution of $40, in return for 25% to 50% off a wine’s retail price and exclusive promotions. The platform allows members to learn more about (and taste wines from) the exclusively sourced independent vineyards, and in turn supports the vineyards through marketing, and funding towards grapes, barrels, bottles and more. The company will use the capital to accelerate growth within the U.S. and Australian markets.

Announced: 8/22/13  Stage: Series C  Participating Institutional Investors: WIV Wein International  Previous Investment: Approximately $29m  Founded: 2008

Gratafy Raises $1.45m. The Seattle-based social gifting platform allows app users to buy food and drink for friends remotely. Touted as more personalized than a general gift card, in that it requires users to purchase specific menu items from partner restaurants to send to friends, the startup is expanding its reach to Los Angeles with plans to roll out across the nation later this year. The latest cash infusion will be used for expansion into new markets, continued development of the “social gifting platform,” and growing the team.

Announced: 8/22/13  Stage: Seed Extension  Participating Institutional Investors:  Not Disclosed  Previous Investment: $1m Seed  Founded: 2011

Delectable Raises $2m. The San Francisco-based wine app and wine database released an updated version of its app in conjunction with the fund raise announcement, touting personalized wine recommendations based on user preferences as a new feature. In addition to the base use of the app, where users take a picture a wine label through the app and receive information about the wine along with community and expert reviews, the company has also added social community functionality.

Announced: 8/21/13  Stage: Angel  Participating Institutional Investors: Angels  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: 2011

GrubHub Seamless Adds New Strategic Investor Through Secondary Sale. Following the announcement of the completed merger transaction, the online and mobile food ordering company announced that the Baltimore-based investment manager T. Rowe Price has acquired an ownership stake in the company by purchasing shares from early investors. It appears that the company did not receive any proceeds from the private placement; companies can use a private placement of shares to provide liquidity to early investors without going public. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, nor were the identities of the investors who sold shares. The addition of T. Rowe Price to the investor roster is likely a signal that an IPO is on the horizon.

Announced: 8/20/13  Stage: Secondary Private Placement  Participating Institutional Investors: T. Rowe Price  Founded: 2013

Restorando Raises $13.3. The Buenos Aires-based startup was designed to bring the OpenTable reservation model to Latin America.  The company offers a free service for restaurant-goers, and unlike OpenTable, doesn’t require any hardware installation for the restaurants. According to TechCrunch, the services are now available in nine major cities in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia offers reservation tools to restaurants in Latin America. The company plans to use the new capital to partner with new restaurants where it is currently operating, and to expand across Latin America.

Announced: 8/16/13  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Flybridge Capital Partners, Emergence Capital Partners, Kaszek Ventures, Atomico, Storm Ventures  Previous Investment: $3.2m Series A  Founded: January 2011

Tastemade Raises $10m. The Santa Monica, CA-based food video startup aims to be a next generation Food Network. The company launched with a multichannel Youtube channel last year, and recently unveiled a handy iPhone app for users to create one-minute restaurant or cooking-focused videos. The app allows users to create their own episodes of a show, and walks users through instructions for how to film a compelling beginning, middle and end to their food story. The raise will help the company expand its reach and gain traction through other channels and devices, like AOL, Yahoo and Roku. The company also plans to use the new round of funding to continue to develop its food video Tastemade app.

Announced: 8/15/13  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Raine Venture Partners,  Redpoint Ventures  Previous Investment: $5.3m Series A, Undisclosed Amount from YouTube  Founded: 2012

Punchh Raises $3m. The Sunnyvale, CA-based provider of mobile solutions for the restaurant industry delivers branded mobile apps for games, gift cards, loyalty, online ordering, payments, referrals, surveys, and marketing campaigns. Styled as a mobile punch card, the Punchh app relies on location-based technology to list all nearby restaurants (even if the restaurants aren’t participating), and when a user chooses a participating location they open up a custom-branded page and digital punch card for that location. The app encourages word-of-mouth for restaurants by rewarding referrals and reviews with bonus “punches.” The use of proceeds will fund the growth of the company’s sales, product and customer success organizations.

Announced: 8/15/13  Stage: Venture  Participating Institutional Investors: Cervin Ventures (lead), Sandhill Group, Green Span Ventures, VKRM Ventures, Garnett Ventures  Previous Investment: $1m  Founded: 2010

Glam Media Raises $25m. The lifestyle-focused digital media company runs a network of (primarily) female-focused websites and blogs (including Foodie and Glam), and also has an advertising network that runs on its own properties as well as others. TechCrunch reports the funding serves as “a ‘top up round for Glam — in another words, some extra cash to keep the company going while it goes through the IPO process,” and Dan Primack of Fortune magazine reported that his sources said the funding happened several months ago, before Glam made a confidential filing for an IPO, although he think the IPO is more likely to occur in 2014.

Announced: 8/15/13  Stage: Series F  Participating Institutional Investors: Keating Capital, Hubert Burda Media  Previous Investment: $155m  Founded: September 2003

Blue Apron Raises $5m. The NY-based subscription dinner kit startup ships pre-measured ingredients and recipes for 2-6 meals weekly, with each serving priced at $9.99 (including shipping). The company will use the proceeds to expand to the West Coast, enabling it to ship to 80% of the country.

Announced: 8/15/13  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, First Round Capital  Previous Investment: $3m Series A, $900k Seed  Founded: 2012

Drync Raises $900k. By taking a photo of a wine label, the Cambridge, MA-based wine discovery iOS app identifies and describes the wine, and by using a network of licensed retailers and wineries, users can purchase the wine to have it shipped directly through the app. The company earns money from wines sold on the app, receiving a flat fee from its partners – the promoted retailers. Wineries are not charged to be listed in the app, however Drync takes a “marketing fee” from each order. The use of proceeds will go towards further development of the app, as Drync plans to be able to recommend wines based on a user’s price and palate preferences.

Announced: 8/14/13  Stage: Angel  Participating Institutional Investors: Garvin Hill Capital Fund  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: 2008

MyFitnessPal Raises $18m. The exercise and diet tracker app has built a loyal and active community since launching in 2005, and in turn has collected millions of data points on users’ diets and exercise regimes, including what they eat, whether they eat at home or restaurants, how often they exercise and the amount of weight that they lose. The new capital marks the first outside funding for the company and will be used for growing the team and pushing into the global marketplace, as it recently launched new versions in Spanish, French, German and Portugese to help drive business in Europe and South America.

Announced: 8/11/13  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Accel Partners  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: 2005

Aisle50 Raises $2.6m. The Chicago-based daily deals company sells digital grocery offers through its Web and mobile platform, which can be redeemed at brick-and-mortar stores using a loyalty card or phone number.  The company didn’t disclose the specific use of proceeds.

Announced: 8/08/13  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Origin Ventures, August Capital, Plug & Play Ventures, Ron Conway, Yuri Milner  Previous Investment: $2.6 Seed  Founded: November 2010

Spotsetter Raises $1.3m. The San Francisco-based social map app and search engine platform combines location data from sources like Yelp and Zagat with user content across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Foursquare to help people discover and decide on new local places to go. The startup has built the social search engine on top of Google Maps and makes personalized recommendations for places to go. The team plans to begin development for Android and other platforms later this year.

Announced: 8/6/13  Stage: Seed  Participating Institutional Investors: Javelin Venture Partners, 2020 Ventures  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: 2011

Clutch Raises $5.3m. The Philadelphia-based mobile commerce company built a platform that unites shopping, loyalty and gifting. The app delivers relevant offers to consumers and targeted customers back to the merchants. In differentiating itself from other mobile shopping companions and wallet apps TechCrunch notes, “rather than going after the younger demographic playing around with social product aggregators…, Clutch is more interested in the deal seeker – one who’s willing to share their personal shopping data with retailers in return for loyalty points and more targeted offers.” With the funding, the company plans to move from being a purely consumer-focused app to one that also serves the needs of local merchants through branded mobile applications.

Announced: 8/05/13  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Safeguard Scientifics, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania  Previous Investment: Venture Round  Founded: July 2012

CityMaps Raises $1.5m. The New York-based social map platform is reinventing the local map experience by allowing users to create and share their own maps of favorite places, discover nearby places to eat, drink and shop, receive personalized suggestions, and of course, get turn-by-turn directions. The company pulls map and business data from OpenStreetMap, Yext and others, so rather than a mashup of Google Maps, the team has built the full user experience and doesn’t rely on Google’s data. This funding is an extension of its earlier Series A, this time bringing in new investors. CityMaps has several upcoming features on the horizon, including a developer API, as well as features that could better connect local businesses to mobile consumers by alerting them to deals, promotions, nearby events, daily specials.

Announced: 8/1/13  Stage: Series A (extension)  Participating Institutional Investors: A-Grade Investments  Previous Investment: $2.5m Series A, $1m Angel  Founded: November 2010

PARTNERSHIPS

Facebook Partners with OpenTable to Allow Users to Reserve Tables at Restaurants Via a Facebook App. For each of the 20,000 OpenTable restaurants in North America, users who visit a restaurant’s Facebook page via the Facebook app can now book directly from the page without leaving to go to another app. As TechCrunch points out, the OpenTable partnership isn’t exclusive, thus this may signal that local bookings and commerce may be the next step for Facebook. This could all been seen as competitive to the new Yelp Platform, as Yelp has also been moving this direction with its recent SeatMe acquisition and local commerce partnerships, and is all the more interesting given the news that Facebook is also reportedly working on PayPal-like mobile payments system.

Groupon Partners with Verifone and Ingenico Terminals For Breadcrumb Mobile Payment Processing. In partnering with two of the biggest producers of payment terminals used at the point of sale – Groupon’s first integration with credit card terminals – merchants can now use these terminals to process card payments through Breadcrumb’s payment service, expanding the options beyond dongles attached to their iOS or Android smartphones and tablets. This is an effort to widen the customer base beyond those merchants who previously never accepted credit cards. The partnership is aimed to reach the group of merchants that already accept credit card payments but haven’t yet had exposure to the new type of integrated POS services that provide analytics, loyalty,etc. Furthermore, TechCrunch explains, “the attractor here is not embracing (and paying) for new technology but getting those users on board with the promise of lower fees using the same stuff they’d always used.”

Yelp and ReachLocal Form Exclusive Partnership to Enable Users to Book Home Services Directly on Yelp. The partnership will allow users to process book appointments with service providers, which use the ReachCommerce software, without leaving the Yelp app or site. ReachCommerce, which is scheduled to roll out nationally by the end of the year, allows business operators to build and manage schedules, assign and track technicians, communicate with customers, generate estimates and invoices, process payments, and provide business intelligence and reporting. Yelp’s strategy to work through partners to bring commerce functionality to its properties – versus building it internally – has brought dramatically increased relevance to the platform, and as Street Fight Magazine declares, this “has undoubtedly hurt the prospects for [competing] consumer commerce brands.” In other Yelp news, a long overdue feature has been added to their new iOS app: users may now post Yelp reviews straight from their mobile phone.

INDUSTRY LANDSCAPE

As The Food Tech & Media ecosystem continues to see rapid change, we created The Food Tech & Media Industry Map  to help entrepreneurs, participants and investors understand this quickly evolving landscape.

Let us know about your recent or upcoming funding, partnerships or acquisitions here.

Check out last month’s round-up here.

Would you be interested in a round-up of agriculture-related funding, partnerships and acquisitions? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Food Tech Media Startup Funding, M&A and Partnerships: August 2013 appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

It is now widely understood that the more information consumers have about their food, the more likely they are to make purchasing decisions that are healthy and responsible – for themselves and the environment.

However, a huge challenge remains: getting easy access as a consumer to reliable information on how commercial meat is produced, processed and consigned to the supply chain. So I’d like to propose “MeatSpace,” an independently run, third-party database that tracks all available data on meat from the hoof through processing to POS, searchable by brand and product/cut. A quick check-in via the “MeatSpace” phone app tells a consumer standing at the butcher counter or picking up a package of hotdogs the breed of the animal, where – and the conditions in which – that animal was raised, and what it was fed, including a list of verifiable or likely antibiotics, hormones and additives.

While initially it will be producers with sustainable track records who participate eagerly, a significant amount of information about products across the commercial meat spectrum can already be obtained through informed research. As consumers begin to have ready access to such information, they will increasingly demand it, and shun brands that get low marks and/or withhold it. The result will be a sizable shift toward sustainably raised meat.

The views expressed here are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the views of Food+Tech Connect. 

How can information and technology be used to create a more sustainable, profitable and healthy future for meat?Share your thoughts in the comments below, on Twitter using #hackmeat,on Facebook or at the Hack//Meat SV hackathon happening at The Stanford d.school in Palo Alto, June 21-23. 

_______________________________________

Katrina Heron is Executive Director of the Edible Schoolyard Project. From 2002 to 2010, Ms. Heron served on the organization’s board, promoting public awareness of improvements to healthy food access and implementation in public school meals programs. A journalist by training, she is a cofounder of Civil Eats  and The Food and Environment Reporting Network, new media nonprofits that provide independent reporting on food, health, agriculture and the environment. In 2008, as board chair of the Slow Food Nation conference in San Francisco, she produced a book showcasing California producers, Come To The Table: The Slow Food Way of Living,with Rodale Inc. She has frequently contributed to The New York Times and other national publications on food topics. Ms. Heron began her editing and writing career in newspapers, transitioned to magazines, and has been involved in digital media since 1995. She served as Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, Senior Editor at The New Yorker and Vanity Fair magazines, and Senior Editor at The New York Times Magazine. She has been an editor and writer at The Dallas Morning News, and editor-at-large for Dwell and Newsweek/The Daily Beast. Ms. Heron received her B.A. with honors from Yale.

Cover Photo: Monty Rakusen/Cultura/Getty Images

The post Hacking Meat: Give Consumers Accessible & Reliable Information appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

From home cooking to the restaurant experience, technology startups are enhancing the way consumers engage with food. These startups are creating significant value for consumers and notable opportunities for restaurants and brands to better understand and provide value to their customers. As the food tech sector matures, we are seeing an increasing number of these companies being funding or acquired by industry players. So, we’re kicking off 2013 with this monthly column highlighting the most interesting acquisitions, financings and partnerships within the Food Tech & Media ecosystem – digital content, social, local, mobile, e-commerce, payments, marketing and analytics – to give you insights into the latest funding and growth trends.

“The digital restaurant” was a major theme in January as technologies focused on loyalty, marketing and ordering/payments saw significant investments and acquisitions. However, substantial disruption in the restaurant industry still has not occurred as rapidly as many entrepreneurs had hoped. As investor Dave McClure impatiently points out in his treatise on the Food Tech Revolution, “everyone eats, everyone is online; what the hell we waiting for?”

It’s true that establishing a digital platform increases visibility, gives restaurants a direct method of communication with customers and allows them to utilize and analyze tremendous amount of data. But competition for consumer and operator mindshare is fierce. Given the slim margins and generally slow adoption by restaurant operators, both established participants and new entrants need to aggressively focus on partnerships and more collaborative approaches if they hope to achieve meaningful growth.

M&A

OpenTable Acquires Foodspotting. The food world was ablaze last week when the visually-focused food-sharing and recommendations app Foodspotting announced it had joined the OPEN family. While there are many different perspectives on which aspects of the acquisition are the most compelling, the somewhat modest pricetag suggests that despite its engaged userbase and recent partnerships designed to increase revenue and utility to users, Foodspotting still faced a challenging environment to scale to the next level. Take note: even with numerous partners, it is increasingly difficult to build a model that requires massive mobile user adoption, and the vast, hyperlocal world of restaurants is a tough nut to crack.

Announced: 1/29/13 Terms: $10m Previous Investment: Approx. $3.75m Institutional Investors: 2020 Ventures, 500 Startups, BlueRun Ventures, Felicis Ventures, High Line Venture Partners, Zelkova Ventures Product Launch: March 2010

Delivery Hero Fully Acquires Hungryhouse and EatitNow.co.uk. The European online food ordering market continues to heat up with the announcement that Berlin-based Delivery Hero fully acquired UK-based Hungryhouse and also purchased EatitNow.co.uk. In February 2012, Delivery Hero acquired a ‘pivotal’ stake in Hungryhouse, but the complete acquisition allows Delivery Hero to triple its monthly business to approximately £6 million in sales across 11,000 restaurants, reports The Next Web. Interestingly, rather than an exit for the Hungryhouse team, they “re-invested 98% of the purchase price of [their] shares [back] into Delivery Hero,” and Hungryhouse co-founder Tony Charles will be taking a product innovation role, helping the company expand and develop its service well into the future. Delivery Hero has grown significantly in the last year through its aggressive acquisition of other companies, and it does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

Performance Marketing Brands (dba Ebates) Acquires Pushpins. In a move to expand into the grocery category, as well as offline coupons, PMB, a conglomerate of several online shopping/rewards programs, snatched up the mobile grocery shopping startup Pushpins which includes a mobile coupon app, the grocery product API SimpleUPC, and nutrition comparison app Food Fight!!.

Announced: 1/19/13 Terms: Estimated $10-$15m. The deal was reportedly structured as “cash with some earn-out targets based on product and business incentives.” Previous Investment: “Sub $1m seed round” from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Archimedes Capital. Product Launch: Nov 2010 

Pinterest Acquires Punchfork. Deemed a great outcome for both Pinterest and Jeff Miller, the one-man team behind social recipe curation website Punchfork, and a sad outcome for enthusiastic users, the acquisition means Miller will soon shut down the popular website, API and mobile apps as Miller joins Pinterest’s engineering team to help improve the discovery product. Punchfork’s social ranking of recipes and highly visual UI helped it stand out in the crowded recipe space, however Miller’s focus on building out an API business model with robust technology  (vs. an advertising model) was likely an influencing consideration in the deal. It is notable that this is Pinterest’s first acquisition.

Announced: 1/03/13 Terms: Not specified; CEO to join engineering team Previous Investment: Bootstrapped Founded: May 2010

FUNDING

OLO Raises $5m. The mobile/online ordering platform for restaurants has reached profitability, and more than doubled its users last year to over 2 million. OLO plans to use the new funding to “aggressively” expand the team and scale up operations. The new strategic investment from PayPal speaks to OLO’s ambitions to ultimately expand into a full mobile commerce platform, beyond the restaurant category. CEO Noah Glass explains in an interview with TechCrunch, “Since June 2005, I thought that mobile commerce was a huge and compelling idea, but for it to really gain mainstream adoption, we had to find the right application for it … PayPal’s thinking is about being an online-plus-mobile account… is incredibly aligned.”

Announced: 1/24/13 Stage: Series B Participating Investors: PayPal, David Frankel, RRE Ventures, Core Capital Partners Previous Investment: $7m Series A Founded: 2005 (Previously called GoMobo)

Abe’s Market Raises $5m. With its third round of funding, the online marketplace for natural and organic products Abe’s Market  plans to invest in marketing, hiring more talent, technology enhancements, content creation and product expansion. Although the e-commerce portal has referred to itself in simple terms as an online farmer’s market, it has been able to surpass the growth of other specialty products sites by broadening its focus to include everyday non-food items, and has augmented the shopping experience with a comprehensive product quality system that categorizes every item by every attribute (gluten free, fair trade, GMO free, Petroleum free, etc.) so customers can find exactly what they want through a targeted search.

Announced: 1/17/13 Stage: Venture Round Participating Investors: Carmel Ventures (lead), Index Ventures, Accel Partners, Beringea, OurCrowd Previous Investment: $3.4m Series A, and undisclosed seed capital Founded: Sept 2009

ChowNow Raises $3m. White label SaaS mobile and Facebook ordering startup ChowNow has “hundreds of restaurants in 44 states,” and plans to use the new funding to further build both its team and its product offering. The company also plans to expand into the catering order segment – a rapidly growing space for startups – and add additional CRM and analytics features for restaurants.

Announced: 1/16/13 (Closed in Sept ’12) Stage: Series A Participating Investors: GRP Partners (lead), Daher Capital, Double M Capital, Karlin Ventures, Velos Partners Previous Investment: $1m Product Launch: May 2012, Graduated from Launchpad LA

PARTNERSHIPS

Virgin America partners with restaurant loyalty platform MOGL for Elevate® Frequent Flyer Program. Given the numerous challenges that many restaurant-focused tech companies face as they attempt to scale, this is a tremendous partnership for the startup MOGL, which increases both brand visibility and utility to users, and provides added incentive for restaurants to join the network. Elevate members who sign up for MOGL will be able to earn 10% cash back from every bill at MOGL partner restaurants, and then exchange that cash to Elevate points each month. Adding to the feel-good component, MOGL also donates a meal through Feeding America every time MOGL members spend more than $20 on a check.

Epson bolsters its OmniLink POS solutions by partnering with mobile loyalty rewards platform RewardLoop and operational and consumer analytics provider Livelenz. By partnering directly with the POS provider, both RewardLoop and Livelenz are able to skip to the front of the line and have direct interaction with all OmniLink restaurant operators. RewardLoop’s cloud hosted, self service rewards platform resides on the printer – not the POS system – and prints QR codes on the receipts for customers to scan. Although the current solution is bolstered by printer/POS partnerships, the company views NFC as a more compelling solution and is “poised to take advantage of this technology as it becomes more prevalent in consumer markets.”

Restaurant menu dashboard and local business data provider Locu partners with TripAdvisor and CitySearch. Following a partnership with OpenTable in November, Locu scored a big distribution win by powering menus, deals, and more to the mobile and web users of TripAdvisor, which has been recently focusing more on its restaurant content, and CitySearch – although it doesn’t appear that sister property UrbanSpoon is part of the partnership.

PayPal takes another step outside of the ecommerce world to partner with NCR Corp’s POS technology for restaurants and gas stations. Ahead of PayPal’s announcement that it was a strategic investor in OLO’s latest round of funding, it made a splash by announcing it will be further expanding into the physical restaurant category through a deep implementation into NCR’s Mobile Pay app and NCR Online Ordering, and perhaps more interestingly, vise versa, as PayPal will integrate NCR’s Mobile Pay merchants into its own branded app. VentureSource observes that this partnership “could end up being of the most significant developments for PayPal in its quest to become the One True Payment Service” (NCR’s customer base includes 38% of the top 100 U.S. restaurant chains). While this may be true, neither are monogamous, and NCR has stated that it is open to similar deals with other mobile payments providers down the line.

ADDITIONAL NEWS

Gourmet meal delivery startup Pop-Up Pantry shuts down operations. While accomplishing a lot of momentum in just six months – including 1,300 monthly paying customers and securing an innovative partnership with TV show “MasterChef” – the economies of scale were not achieved quickly enough, and the cost of shipping the meals was a hurdle they couldn’t surpass.

Stage: Seed Participating Investors: GRP Partners (lead), Crosscut Ventures Investment Amount: $1.7m Product Launch: June 2012, Graduated from Launchpad LA

Ethnic cooking and monthly commerce startup Culture Kitchen closes shop. As part of the second class of 500 Startups, Culture Kitchen started as an online site that featured classes on how to cook ethnic dishes and evolved into a monthly commerce venture that sold DIY Ethnic Cooking Kits. Despite an enthusiastic community, the team decided it was time to move on, and in their farewell post  the co-founders candidly discussed the difficulties that confronted them, including “challenges with sales, bumps in the road with funding and the sometimes dwindling team energy from working very long hours.”

Stage: Seed Participating Investors: 500 Startups, from the incubator’s Design Fund Investment Amount: NA Product Launch: August 2011

INDUSTRY LANDSCAPE

As The Food Tech & Media ecosystem continues to see rapid change, we created The Food Tech & Media Industry Map  to help entrepreneurs, participants and investors understand this quickly evolving landscape.

Let us know about your recent or upcoming funding, partnerships or acquisitions here.

Would you be interested in a round-up of agriculture-related funding, partnerships and acquisitions? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Food Tech & Media Funding, M&A and Partnership Deals: January 2013 appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Photo Credit: miltedflower

Every year, Food+Tech Connect looks at the trends that are transforming the future of how food is produced, sold and consumed. We always pay particular attention to Phil Lempert’s, CEO of The Lempert Report and author of SupermarketGuru.com, foresights. This year, Lempert’s predictions touch on many of the topics we’ve covered over the past year like food waste, transparency, health and wellness and protein consumption. Lempert also points to the terrible drought of 2012 as a direct cause of increasing food prices and predicts that consumers will use technology to reduce waste and make smarter purchasing decisions.

Below is a summary and analysis of a few of his ideas for the coming year. Quotes below come from Lempert’s summary on Supermarket News. Read his trend predictions in full here and here.

Trend #1 – Sustainability: We Stop Wasting Food

“The National Resource Defense Council estimates 40% of food goes uneaten each month in the United States. Not surprisingly, the Eco Pulse Survey from the Shelton Group reports 39% of Americans feel the most ‘green guilt’ for wasting food, almost double the number who feel guilty about not recycling.”

Earlier this year, we reported on how food is lost at each step in the supply chain, illustrating facts about the costs of food waste through data-packed infographics. We’re seeing large food companies and entrepreneurs developing technological solutions to improve efficiency and minimize waste, as described by  NRDC in this report.

Two innovative waste reduction projects we followed this year were Halfsies, a social initiative giving restaurant diners the ability to eat a half portion of their meal and donate part of the plate’s cost to a charity, and Sian’s Plan, a new meal planning tool. Given rising food prices, coupled with the significant cost saving potential outline in the NRDC report for manufacturers, restaurants and consumers, we expect there will be even greater attention on food waste reduction technologies in 2013.

Trend #3 – The Boomer Reality of Diabetes, High Blood Pressure and Heart Disease

“Studies by the NPD Group show that nutrition and healthy eating habits are top meal-planning priorities for Baby Boomers…Boomers will focus on their intake of antioxidants as they continue their search for the fountain of youth. Boomers will control more than half the dollars spent on grocery foods by 2015, look for more heart-healthy antioxidant-rich foods including oily fish such as salmon, as well as green tea, sweet potatoes, dark leafy greens, popcorn, berries and whole grains to take over supermarket shelves.”

We couldn’t agree more with this prediction. A staggering two-thirds of adults and one-third of children in the United States are overweight or obese. Earlier this year, the Institute of Medicine reported that obesity-related illness treatments cost an estimated $190.2 billion annually  and cost businesses $4.3 billion in losses as a result of obesity-related absenteeism. Food Marketing Institute and Prevention Magazine’s annual “Shopping For Health” annual survey also indicates that consumers are increasingly looking for healthier food options.

A number of startups launched new products to meet this growing demand for healthier food choices. Some of the companies we reported on this year include:

• Massive Health launched the Eatery, an iPhone app that helps users track and analyze their eating patterns to better understand their strengths, weaknesses and the best places to make changes in their diet. In just 5 months, users from 50 countries contributed over 7.68 million food ratings
• Nutritionix launched a suite of tools that allow restaurants and food brands to organize and publish their nutritional data. They also announced plans to release an API for developers. At the time of our interview, the company had over 150 developers on their API waiting list.
• Maya Design launched Maya Food Oasis, a virtual grocery marketplace to improve access to healthy and affordable food in food deserts. Sanofi Aventis provided the company with funding after they presented at the Health Data Initiative. Sanofi is also committed to supporting the next generation of diabetes prevention and management technologies, while also reinvigorating their business model, through its Data Design Diabetes competition.

Trend #4 – The Economy: The New Proteins

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the cost of both beef and chicken will increase by at least 5% due to the 2012 drought and declining supply. A major shift is anticipated in the nation’s protein food s

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upply away from meat-based proteins and shifting to meatless proteins like eggs, nut butters, tofu, beans, legumes, with an increase in awareness and consumption of vegetarian and vegan meals.”

With tech investors like Vinod Khosla and Biz Stone betting on fake meat, we agree that the dialogue about consuming new proteins will flourish in 2013. But during our online conversation “Hacking Meat,” we found it’s not all about substitutes. Recipe development startup Foodpairing is seeing a growing interest among chefs to develop dishes that incorporate more vegetables and smaller servings of better meat, without compromising flavor and satisfaction.

Similarly, Cookstr’s Kara Rota sees technology as critical to reducing meat consumption, but not “ in the form of in vitro meat.” She advocates for using technology to provide home cooks recipes that emphasize quality over quantity. And Haven Bourque of HavenBMedia invites “meat lovers to sit at the table with committed vegans and dream up farm-fresh, seasonal meals that anyone would enthusiastically eat.”

There is also growing demand for sustainably and humanely raised meat, but farmers and chefs face significant barriers to making these kinds of operations economically sustainable. Following the success of Hack//Meat, you can be sure to expect more conversation and events to help help support the development of technologies that can address some of these challenges.

Trend #8 – Mobile the Next Generation: Tests for Allergens, Ripening Produce, Organics, and Start Cooking Your Meals

“The newest wave of technology includes smartphones that network with kitchen appliances and allow consumers to do everything from checking how much milk they have left in the refrigerator, to turning the oven on from another room. The next generation of mobile apps may determine if fruits and vegetables are ripe, if refrigerated and frozen foods have been kept at the correct temperature farm to freezer, and even test for foodborne bacteria.”

We also believe mobile and sensor technologies will reshape the way consumers interact with and purchase food. We are particularly excited about some of the innovative technologies retailers, technologists and researchers are developing that bridge the digital and physical worlds. Three of the more interesting projects we covered include:

• Peapod created a virtual store in a Chicago transit station, lining the walls with product images and QR codes. Customers could, theoretically, order items while they waited for a train.
• Lapka launched a “personal environment monitor” device and app that allows you to test the “organicity of your food.
• An interactive cheese, meat & fish counter designed by German interaction design students provides customers with detailed product, origin and recipe information for food items.

Read about more of the R&D projects we covered this year here.

Trend #10 – Transparency: Who is making our food?

“2013 will be a transitional year as on-package claims proliferate and confuse. Look as supermarkets take on the role of gatekeeper and actually demand proof and transparency of claims before they will permit products to be sold on their shelves. Consumers are reading labels selecting their foods more holistically based on all the ‘food factors’ including taste, ingredients, source and nutritional composition, as well as who is making their food.”

In 2012, consumer distrust of food grew as reports of “pink slime,” antibiotic overuse in animals and arsenic in rice made their way across the Internet. California’s Proposition 37 fueled a growing debate about food labeling, and even though the proposition was not passed, the debate will likely continue into 2013.

A number of startups and NGOs developed mobile apps to help meet growing consumer demand for information about what's in their food. For example,  Fooducate launched a GMO app to help consumers determine which foods are made with GMO ingredients; Real Time Farms launched the FixAntibiotics Food Finder to help consumers find meat raised without antibiotics; and Center for Science in the Public Interest  launched Chemical Cuisine to help people understand additives in our food. Additionally, NRDC launched the Label Lookup iPhone app.

But without public databases available with data about GMO use, for example, companies like Fooducate are only able to offer a level of probability that a product contains GMO ingredients. This is not ideal for the consumer, and it's certainly not ideal for manufacturers. But there are glimmers of hope. This year, Kraft and Nestle opened up their recipe and ingredient data. And while these are just small first steps, we hope it’s an increasing trend that will give rise to new applications that improve transparency and the customer experience.

What are your trend predictions for 2013? Let us know in the comments section below, and we will feature your ideas in our weekly newsletter read by the top food and technology investors, executives and startups.

We will also inviting the individuals with the best responses to contribute a guest post on the topic of their choice to Food+Tech Connect.

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 #1: Lapka

Lapka is a “personal environment monitor” that allows people to collect, measure and analyze information about their environment via their smartphone. Lapka offers a series of sensor peripherals to measure organicity (how organic your food is), radiation, temperature, humidity and electromagnetic fields. Using the companion app, people are able to make sense of their findings through data visualizations and ratings. Lapka tests organicity of fruits and vegetables using a stainless steel probe, plugged into the phone via the headphone jack, to measure electrical conductivity. The level of conductivity relates to the concentration of nitrate ions from nitrogen-based fertilizers. Lapka is already available for purchase.

#2: iTube

Researchers from UCLA have developed

t used to determine the concentration of colored compounds in a solution. In as little as 20 minutes, the device and accompanying app can identify the presence of peanuts, almonds, eggs, gluten and hazelnuts. Aydogan Ozcan, a professor at UCLA, and his colleagues have successfully tested the technology on various types of commercially available cookies.

“This automated and cost-effective personalized food allergen testing tool running on cellphones can also permit uploading of test results to secure servers to create personal and/or public spatio-temporal allergen maps, which can be useful for public health in various settings,” write Ozcan and his colleagues in a paper published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Lab on a Chip.

#3 Rapid Testing of Food Quality

Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute is developing a miniature spectrometer that will allow consumers to determine the quality of food – if it's ripe or water-logged – before making the decision to buy it. The device uses near infrared technology to assess starch, protein, water, and fat content in food. Fraunhofer explains in a press release, “In the future, all you will need to do is hold your smartphone near the product in question, activate the corresponding app, choose the food type from the menu – e.g. “pear” – and straight away the device will make a recommendation: the fructose content of the pear is high, so buy it!” The device is currently being prototyped, but may be ready for market launch in three to five years, according to the press release.

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There have been not one, not two, but three papers published in the last six months, the last one published last week, encompassing an impressive body of work around behavior change and weight loss, from the same research group led by Bonnie Spring, PhD, at Northwestern University.

There’s a lot of stuff in here – everything from financial incentives to the way you coach people about behavior change to the use of mobile devices. If you don’t read them all (or don’t read any of them all the way through), it’s highly likely that you’ll come to the wrong conclusion, in my opinion, so I’m going to break it down here:

1. The way you counsel people about behavior change makes a difference

This is actually the most important part of the first two papers linked here, not the up to $730 incentive (more on that later). What the authors studied was competing theories about how to talk to people. They looked at four different ways, which I’m going to summarize, because it’s important – these are things that are cost-free and don’t require any capital expenditure to deploy .

• Theory 1: Familiarity hypothesis, I’ll call it “MOTS: More of the Same” – “Decrease your saturated fat intake, increase your physical activity”
• Theory 2: Behavioral Economic hypothesis: Crowd out an unhealthy behavior with a heathy one – “Eat more fruits and vegetables, decrease your sedentary activity” < - This was the winner
• Theory 3: Low Inhibitory Demand, I’ll call it “Don’t be a downer, tell people what they CAN do rather than what they CAN’T” – “Eat more fruits and vegetables, increase physical activity”

People coached with the winning theory had significantly higher changes in a calculated “Diet-Activity” score compared to others. If you break it down a little more, it looks like it was far more likely that they could eat more fruits and veggies, than that they could increase their physical activity, across all groups. The winning group, though, dramatically decreased sedentary leisure,  almost by half, which persisted 20 weeks later.

2. Paying people is a background activity to the above

In the first two papers, people were paid $175 to go through 3 weeks of intervention and point incentives along the way up to 20 weeks of follow up, for a total of $730. It seems like this got them through to recording their information. I don’t think it’s the most important feature of the study, and as the authors point out, probably not a realistic approach moving forward.

3. The mobile technology itself doesn’t help in isolation

Notice, I keep saying “mobile technology” not “smartphone.” That’s because these studies used PalmPilots (!) to support entry of data and target feedback. All of the study participants in the behavior change theory study improved their diet-activity score. There was no control group there, the goal was just to compare the theoretical approaches. The first study relied on self report of food intake and physical activity, which the authors sought to keep accurate by deploying a “bogus pipeline” approach where they told people to submit their grocery receipts and accelerometer data that were actually not used – clever.

The second study, which is in the third paper linked to this post, was more focused on weight loss itself rather than behavior change, and in it, the authors planned at the start that the mobile technology would be part of intensive coaching for all study subjects – they didn’t even try to have the mobile device make this happen for people. And in fact, the mobile device by itself didn’t make it happen for people – the one group who were randomized to get the mobile device and didn’t go to class actually gained weight. They gained more weight than the control group who had no mobile device.

What did happen for people was weight loss when they (a) used the mobile device to track and get feedback AND (b) they went to classes, in person. That was the requirement – that both happen, and when it did, this group lost more weight initially, and kept it off – average of 6.38 pounds at 12 months. The people with the mobile devices that didn’t go to classes, gained about 5 pounds at 12 months, which is more than the people who went to classes by themselves, and more than people who didn’t do the classes or get mobile devices.

There’s another really important piece of information in all of this, which is that the people who were randomized into the study were selected after a two week trial of recording their information. About 35% of the people that went into this gate didn’t make it, so in the end, this was a study of people who can use mobile devices to record their information.

As I said, there’s a lot here

I’m looking at this from a population/social determinants perspective, and I would ask the question, “Should mobile devices or apps be deployed to the entire population to make weight loss happen compared to other approaches?” The answer for me would be “no.”

I think what the authors are demonstrating is the answer to this question, “Should mobile devices or apps be deployed to people who are motivated to use apps to lose weight and participate in intensive behavioral interventions?” to which the answer is more of a “yes.”

Also, “Should we get smarter in communicating with people, with technology and not, about their choices?” – answer is “yes.”

I think we still need to think about technology as an enabler at the right time / place , everyone is necessary, and the hard work of looking at the causes of the causes of poor health is not going to go away (see: Now Reading: Why a focus on lifestyle behavior change may not improve health: The Marmot Review | Ted Eytan, MD).

The reason I love technology and have been invested in it for so long (and will continue to be) is because of its role in facilitating communication and connecting people to people. The best.app.ever is the human brain, the most important innovation in health information technology is listening. Oh, and prevention is the new HIT.

I communicated with Dr. Spring before writing this post to help me understand what we can take away from this research, which is very important/timely/useful (and I of course invited her to Washington, DC to the Behavior Change Summit in 2013  – More info on that here: Behavior Change: What can we learn from other industries? – EXAMPLES | Ted Eytan, MD). I learned a ton here that I didn’t know before, which makes me happy that talented behavioral scientists are working in this area.

This post originally appeared on Ted Eytan's blog. 

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