Every week we track the business, tech and investment trends in CPG, retail, restaurants, agriculture, cooking and health, so you don’t have to. Here are some of last week’s top headlines.

News in retail continues to steal headlines in weekly top news. Amazon slashed prices up to 43% at Whole Foods on its official first day as owner of Whole Foods, adding to the competitive pressure of the fast-changing $800 billion supermarket industry. Target finally cut ties with Hampton Creek, explaining that food safety allegations were too much of a risk for the retail giant, despite the FDA’s conclusion that their products were safe. Blue Apron’s Chief Financial Officer Brad Dickerson revealed the struggles behind e-commerce subscription services and a break down of their spendings and losses, which has amounted to $31.6 million.

In restaurant news, Starbuck’s digital ordering system has taken off successfully and managed to change consumer behavior in such a way that should inspire envy in Silicon Valley types. Restaurants turn to data-mining from social media, review sites, and tracking apps to stay competitive.

And finally, a new kind of eating disorder born from wellness culture called orthorexia that obsesses over consuming foods that are “pure” and “clean.”

Check out our weekly round-up of last week’s top food startup, tech and innovation news below or peruse the full newsletter here.

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1. Amazon Cuts Whole Foods Prices as Much as 43% on First Day – Bloomberg

Cutting prices at the chain with an entrenched reputation for high cost is a sign that Amazon is serious about taking on competitors such as Walmart, Kroger and Costco.

2. Inside Amazon + Whole Foods: The First Day – Food Dive

Strategically discounted prices and new signage promoting the grocer’s online shopping platform were on display in Whole Foods.

3. Target Ends Relationship with Troubled Startup Hampton Creek – Bloomberg

The retail giant decided to end the relationship after receiving what it described as “specific and serious food safety allegations about Hampton Creek products,” despite the FDA’s conclusion that their products are safe.

4. Blue Apron’s Struggles Show Why It’s Tough to Make It With E-Commerce Subscriptions – Bloomberg

The business model for subscription boxes turns out to be much tougher than it sounds, because of the high costs of getting and keeping customers. The company spent $94 in the past three years to acquire each subscriber and $144m on marketing in 2016.

5. Starbucks Teaches Silicon Valley a Lesson in Tech – Barron’s

The company’s digital ordering system has become  major hit, changing consumer payment behavior in a way that should inspire envy in Silicon Valley.

6. To Survive in Tough Times, Restaurants Turn to Data-Mining – New York Times

Startups and established companies are both scrambling to deliver immediate data on sales, customers, staff performance or competitors by merging restaurant information with data from sources such as social media, review sites, and tracking apps.

7. Is Wellness Culture Creating a New Kind of Eating Disorder? – Quartz

British actress Daniella Isaacs was once entrenched in the world of wellness until realizing that she had orthorexia, an eating disorder about a moral fixation on consuming “pure” and “clean” foods.

8. Arable Capital Partners Closes Debut Fund at $300m – Global AgInvesting

Arable aims to fill the funding gap that exists in the food and agriculture sectors. The funds will be spent on operating businesses in agriculture.

The post Amazon Cuts Whole Foods Prices 43%, Target Splits With Hampton Creek + More appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Ahh, the joys of summer: grilling outdoors, growing vegetables, sipping cold beers, and…free analytics? Yes, you read that right. In honor of the glorious summer of 2015, Food Genius, the leading foodservice data provider, is making exciting changes to how you can interact with our data and analytics. We’re announcing a new program for qualified users to receive complimentary access to our menu analytics dashboard.

Over the last 4 years, we’ve built a number of tools and experiences for foodservice professionals to gain insight and value from the massive amounts of menu data and technology we’ve built. We’ve had our share of successes and failures, but one thing we know is that more access to data is great for the foodservice industry as a whole. We believe that adoption of new tools, technology, and analytics services will lead to better insights and ultimately greater innovation.

We’ve decided to lower the barrier for certain groups of people working in or around the food industry to interact with and manipulate our data dashboard for a few reasons. First, we built a tool chock-full of insight, and we want to show it off. Second, we believe in democratizing data and are intent on leading that shift for the food industry. Access to data should be a given. This open access provides people with the freedom to interpret the data, and pushes everyone to become more “data literate”.

As Kris Hammond from the team at Narrative Science said, “Truly democratizing data requires some work in order to make it more understandable to everyone…It means giving people the stories that are trapped in the data so they can do something with the information.” The release of our dashboard attempts to do just that. It allows people access to those stories hidden in the data, so that people can access it and understand it in a relevant way for themselves, instead of going through us.

Starting immediately, students, educators, researchers, state restaurant associations and media focused on the food service industry will be able to access the Food Genius dashboard for the remainder of the year, completely free of charge, opening up access to menu examples, pricing statistics, ingredient usage rates, and geographic penetration.

Get in touch with us to learn more.

A version of this post originally appeared on Food Genius’ blog on July 7.

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Eli Rosenberg is a co-founder of Food Genius currently working on developing partnerships and managing content development, sometimes he also makes sure the internet works and lunch gets ordered.

Find this article valuable? Help us continue bringing you the news, insights and community you depend on by making a small contribution. Learn more HERE.

The post Food Genius Democratizes Foodservice Data, Offers Free Access to Menu Analytics Dashboard appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

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.

With a handful of significant late stage transactions and good mix of earlier-stage deals, March activity rounded out to almost $2.0 billion in investments through fundraising and acquisitions. With four acquisitions ($505.5 million), seventeen private capital raises ($1.47 billion) and one public company private placement ($1.2 million), delivery was still a prominent theme as were a variety of technology platforms for ordering, payment, reservations, reviews and more. About half of the fundraising took place outside of the U.S.

Mirroring the investment trends, much discussion in the media continues to focus on the “1099 Economy” and the overall delivery business model. While delivery foodtech startups like Instacart, Postmates and Caviar are being sued over labor practices, investment is still pouring into the sector as companies race to grow transactions and own each market as they expand their geographic footprint. Although current market conditions are a indeed frothy, there is still room for new specialized market segments to blossom (alcohol delivery is a recent example), where businesses need to layer in new strategies in order to tap into the new generation of smartphone-wielding shoppers.

M&A

ShopKeep Acquires Payment Revolution. The Northbrook, IL-based credit card processing startup will enable ShopKeep, a NYC-based mobile payments startup, to offer payment processing as a part of its point-of-sale platform. As a part of the deal, ShopKeep will operate under the new name, ShopKeep Payments. TechCrunch reports that the two companies were already partnering together, and the deal will allow the ShopKeep to provide a simpler product to better meet the need of merchants.

Announced: 03/25/2015 Terms: Not Disclosed Previous Investment: NA Founded: 2009

Minibar Delivery Acquires Booze Carriage. The New York City-based Booze Carriage, similar to Minibar Delivery, is an alcohol delivery platform that connects users to their local liquor stores to provide delivery. According to the release, Booze Carriage’s user base of 25,000 is expected to increase Minibar’s sales by 20%, and expand Minibar’s beer selection as well as its distribution capabilities. TechCrunch notes that the acquisition of Booze Carriage marks Minibar’s expansion to become the biggest player in the NYC place.

Announced: 03/20/2015 Terms: Not Disclosed Previous Investment: Not Disclosed Founded: 2012

Recruit Acquires Quandoo. The Berlin, Germany-based restaurant reservation platform is used by restaurants in Europe, Africa, and Asia to provide restaurant operators with a table and reservation management system, aimed at raising operational productivity and service quality. Recruit, a publically-traded Japanese human resources firm, reports that the acquisition of Quandoo will enable Recruit to expand its service and global reach as part of its goal to become the world’s largest “global matching platform.” Notably, Quandoo took a strategic investment from Recruit — via its RGIP venture capital fund — in late 2014, and now with this acquisition is wholly-owned by the company’s venture group.

Announced: 03/05/2015 Terms: $225.5m Previous Investment: $55.5m Founded: December 2012

PayPal Acquires Paydiant. The Wellesley, MA-based payment service enables large retail chains to create their own branded mobile wallet apps and currently serves 162 million users. Given Paydiant’s popularity among retailers and banks, its acquisition positions PayPal for growth in areas outside of internet payments. As TechCrunch points out, “adding Paydiant will bring more point-of-sale volume on to PayPal’s platform.” The deal gives Paydiant the opportunity to scale its business, and PayPal a path to becoming a stronger business partner for merchants, including restaurants, by providing a payment method in app-based platforms.

Announced: 03/02/2015 Terms: $280m Previous Investment: $34.6m Founded: 2010

FUNDING

MyLorry Raises Undisclosed Amount from Delivery Hero. Berlin-based MyLorry offers delivery for restaurants that don’t have their own logistic service. As Venture Village reports, Delivery Hero invested a “double-digit Euro million amount” for 16% of MyLorry’s shares.

Announced: 03/31/15 Stage: Seed Participating Investors: Delivery Hero Previous Investment: $2.3 million Founded: May 2013

MyCheck Raises $5m. The Tel Aviv, Israel and New York-based mobile payment app for restaurants and merchants allows customers to check in, view, split and pay their bills using mobile devices. The company’s technology platform is built into a number of apps and integrates with 27 different Points-of-Sale systems, allowing MyCheck to reach over 80 million consumers. TechCrunch notes that since its launch, MyCheck has pivoted to a B2B model, with analytics to allow customers to redeem special offers and be rewarded for loyalty. The company will use the new funding to accelerate its international expansion focusing on the US and Western Europe, boost sales and marketing, and augment its business intelligence capabilities. Notably, the investment comes from Santander’s new Innoventures Fund, which adds strategic “expertise and scale,” and the potential to have portfolio company’s marketed to the bank’s 107 million-plus retail and commercial customers across Europe and the Americas.

Announced: 03/29/15 Stage: Series B Participating Institutional Investors: Santander Innoventures Fund Previous Investment: $6.1 million Founded: March 2011

ChowNow Raises $10m. The Venice, California-based online ordering and marketing platform enables restaurants to take orders through their website, Facebook page, and via branded smartphone apps specific for each restaurant. The company has recently expanded its management team as well as its services to integrate with Apple Pay, Yelp, and Google, and plans to introduce a new catering product and other enhancements to its core product. The funding will be used towards growth acceleration and product launch.

Announced: 03/26/15 Stage: Series B Participating Institutional Investors: Upfront Ventures (lead), Steadfast Venture Capital, Daher Capital, Karlin Ventures Previous Investment: $7.7 million Founded: 2012

DoorDash Raises $40m. The Palo Alto-based on-demand restaurant food delivery platform makes it possible for small businesses to provide local delivery services to their customers. DoorDash currently services eight markets across the country. The company claims its on-demand delivery infrastructure enables customers to receive delivered goods in less than 45 minutes and ensures reliable deliveries in times of irregular demand. The company will use the proceeds towards expansion into new markets across the country and further investment in logistics technology to scale its platform beyond food.

Announced: 03/26/2015 Stage: Series B Participating Institutional Investors: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Charles River Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital Previous Investment: $19.7 million Founded: January 2013

Teabox Raises $6m. The Darjeeling, India-based online tea-seller distributes tea from the origin directly to a global consumer base. The company is vertically integrated and works directly with tea plantations in India and Nepal. According to TechCrunch, by handling distribution, supply, storage, and logistics itself, Teabox eliminates supply chain inefficiencies and is thus able to sell products at higher profit margins and ensure rapid delivery. Teabox will use the funding towards expansion into newer markets, infrastructure development, talent acquisition, and marketing initiatives.

Announced: 03/24/15 Stage: Series A Participating Institutional Investors: JAFCO Asia, Keystone Group, Dragoneer Investment Group, Accel Partners Previous Investment: $1 million Founded: July 2012

ezCater Raises $11.7m. The Boston-based online catering platform connects people with local caterers and restaurants across the U.S, with a specific focus on business catering. ezCater has partnered with over 40,000 caterers in the country to deliver meals for meetings and events of up to 2,000 people. The new funds will be used to hire employees, focusing on expanding its digital marketing, brand marketing, and software engineering teams.

Announced: 03/23/2015 Stage: Series B Participating Institutional Investors: Insight Venture Partners, Breton Capital Management, Launchpad Venture Group Previous Investment: $6.8 million Founded: August 2007

Kitchenbowl Raises $1m. The Seattle-based startup describes itself as a community in which users can share and discover recipes. The company has both a mobile and web platform, and aims to distinguish itself by offering step-by-step recipes, each with an accompanying GIF to guide clarity. In addition, users can find new content by following other users. Kitchenbowl aims to eventually enable users to purchase ingredients for the recipes through its platform.

Announced: 03/25/2015 Stage: Seed Participating Institutional Investors: Sugar Mountain Capital, Chasing Unicorns, Indicator Fund Previous Investment: Not Disclosed Founded: 2013

Maple Raises $22m. The New York-based startup, with notable involvement by chef David Chang, will launch and operate a delivery-only kitchen that serves restaurant quality meals to subscribers in New York in the coming months. The company is designed to be vertically integrated, distinguishing itself from other meal delivery startups by managing orders, food preparation, and delivery. Maple will use the new funding to develop its product, hire staff, and build out infrastructure and marketing.

Announced: 03/20/2015 Stage: Series A Participating Institutional Investors: Greenoaks Capital, Primary Ventures, Thrive Capital Previous Investment: $4.0 million Founded: 2014

Thirstie Raises $1.1m. The New York-based wine, spirits, and beer delivery app serves as a marketing platform for liquor stores. Through the company’s mobile platform, users can order alcohol from nearby stores that offers delivery services. TechCrunch reports that the company aims to establish a relationship with consumers through alcohol-related content, currently featured via microsites dedicated to the drinking culture of the customer’s region. Thirstie has partnered with over 100 liquor retailers and operates in markets including Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City, and plans to use the funding to expand into new markets, as well as speed customer acquisition, enhance product development, and increase support provision.

Announced: 03/19/2015 Stage: Seed Participating Institutional Investors: Angels Previous Investment: Not Disclosed Founded: February 2013

Pinterest Raises $367m. The San Francisco, CA-based visual discovery platform raised capital at a valuation of $11 billion, more than doubling the valuation from $5 billion last May. As Bloomberg reports, Pinterest has been working to build out its advertising model, through which brands can pay to promote their posts. The company is also investing to expand internationally and improve its product.

Announced: 03/16/15 Stage: Series G Valuation: Approximately $11 billion Participating Institutional Investors: Innovation Department, Bessemer Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz Previous Investment: $762.5 million Founded: January 2009

Oddle Raises $718k. The Singapore-based food ordering platform enables smaller restaurants to join the online ordering market by managing the logistics of online deliveries and pick-ups. A subscription service, Oddle allows customers to order food through a branded page customizable by the restaurant, while providing restaurant operators with an order management system. Unlike competing services that charge restaurants per order transaction, Oddle charges a flat fee for every restaurant outlet, which allows restaurants to make a higher profit if their online businesses are successful. Oddle intends to use the fresh injection of capital to focus on regional expansion into major cities, in addition to platform development to allow enable multiple language functions and back-end infrastructure strengthening to support larger capacities.

Announced: 03/16/2015 Stage: Seed Participating Investors: East Ventures, Holly Tan Previous Investment: Not Disclosed Founded: March 2014

Retty Raises $8.2m. The Tokyo, Japan-based social platform enables users to rate and review restaurants and see which spots are popular with their friends. The site presently sees an estimated 8 million monthly visitors. Retty plans to use the funding for international expansion to the United States, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Announced: 03/16/2015 Stage: Series C Participating Institutional Investors: Fidelity Growth Partners Japan, Gree Ventures, Mizuho Capital Previous Investment: $4.4 million Founded: 2011

Favor Raises $13m. The Austin-based on-demand food delivery app allows users to have products delivered from local grocery stores and restaurants. Through Favor’s mobile app, users can identify their desired food or grocery item along with the store they might want to purchase from. Favor’s delivery people can stay in touch with customers through text message as they seek out the products for delivery. The company currently serves Austin, Boston, Houston, and Dallas, and plans to use to the funding to improve customer services and expand into seven to ten new cities this year.

Announced: 03/13/2015 Stage: Series A Participating Institutional Investors: Silverton Partners, S3 Ventures Previous Investment: $3.9 million Founded: April 2012

FoodPanda Raises $110m. After a major acquisition spree in India, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Asia, the Berlin-based food delivery marketplace, which is now part of Rocket Internet’s newly formed “Global Online Takeaway Group”, plans to further invest into product and technology. The company states it will also continue to focus on user experience, customer service and loyalty.

Announced: 03/12/15 Stage: Series E Participating Institutional Investors: Rocket Internet Previous Investment: $108.0 million Founded: April 2012

Dianping Raises $850m. The Shanghai, China- based restaurant review and group buying app, The investment will push the company’s valuation to $4.05 billion, which is above its closest U.S. equivalent – Yelp. Dianping has more than 190 million monthly active users and over 60 million reviews of restaurants and other local businesses.

Announced: 03/12/15 Stage: Series E Valuation: $4.06 billion Participating Institutional Investors: Xiaomi Corp., FountainVest Partners, Temasek Holdings, Tencent Holdings Ltd., Wanda Group, Fosun Group Previous Investment: $162.3 million Founded: April 2003

Groupon India Raises $20m. The U.S.-based business has been exploring strategic options for its holdings in Asia, and Groupon India, which was born out of one of Groupon’s acquisition of SoSasta, has picked up outside investment. According to TechCrunch, the long-term strategy for Groupon India appears to be aimed at further separating itself from its parent company in the U.S. and growing more autonomous.

Announced: 03/10/2015 Stage: Venture Participating Institutional Investors: Sequoia Capital Founded: January 2011 (Date of Groupon’s acquisition of SoSatsa)

Innovative Food Holdings Raises $1.2m. The publicly-traded nationwide provider of specialty foods to the professional foodservice market, and the parent company of The Fresh Diet, a direct-to-consumer freshly prepared meal delivery company, announced it has closed a private placement of restricted shares. According to the release, the company plans to use the proceeds for the growth of The Fresh Diet and expansion opportunities in the Direct-to-Chef business segments.

Announced: 03/09/2015 Stage: Private Placement

PepperTap Raises $1.2m. The Gurgaon, India-based mobile application offers on-demand grocery delivery services. Rather than maintaining its own inventory, PepperTap focuses on facilitating orders and deliveries, and claims to ensure delivery within Gurgaon in less than two hours after customers place their order. The funding will be used to further develop the product, scale up the operations, grow its staff, and enhance offline and online brand visibility.

Announced: 02/25/2015 Stage: Seed Participating Institutional Investors: Sequoia Capital Previous Investment: Not Disclosed Founded: November 2014

PARTNERSHIPS

Uber Partners with Chili’s to provide diners who use the Ziosk pay-at-the-table tablet a $20 credit for transportation.

Postmates Partners with Starbucks to deliver Starbucks products to customers who order through the Starbucks mobile app.

Sidecar Partners with Eat24 to offer delivery services using Sidecar’s network of drivers, who are currently engaged in the ride sharing service.

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 2014 Annual Report and last month’s round-up.

Find value in this monthly roundup? Help us continue bringing you the news, insights and community you depend on by making a small contribution. Learn more HERE.

The post Food Tech Media Startup Funding, M&A and Partnerships: March 2015 appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

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 last month of 2014 rounded out with a reported $230 million+ invested into the food tech sector, however it was likely much higher given two large transactions had an undisclosed deal size. On the funding side, activity was relatively in line with last December, although the Instacart megaround and undisclosed (yet reportedly significant) Baedaltong funding are examples of later-stage bets that were quite rare in 2013. On the M&A front however, activity was very light, especially compared to last December’s seven acquisitions versus three deals this year (with only one deal in the U.S.).

By looking at December’s deals it is clear investors are still buying into the on-demand opportunity, and they aren’t the only ones. Along with the news of Uber’s $3 food delivery service, Amazon’s future as a delivery company, and Square’s new food delivery app (via Caviar), the media’s focus on the delivery industry persisted throughout the month with publications pontificating on why so many commerce and tech companies are getting into the food delivery game, the new bubble of same-day delivery, the “Uber-ification” of local business sectors, and the legal problem of the on-demand economy (which I think needs to be highlighted more often).

While some consolidation has already begun, I think 2015 will be a year of opportunity for established companies looking to expand their services and geographic empires in this space.

M&A

Oracle Acquires Datalogix. The acquisition of the Westminster, CO-based SaaS marketing firm, which examines the offline sales impact from ads on Facebook and Twitter for retailers and CPG clients, complements Oracle’s acquisition of BlueKai and rounds out its digital marketing suite. As I noted in past reports, Datalogix raised $45m in May, and acquired Spire Marketing in February, which uses analytics from grocery loyalty card data, point-of-sale purchase data, and trade-level data to power in-store marketing initiatives which drive spontaneous purchases. VentureBeat points out that Datalogix brings a dataset that wasn’t in Oracle’s arsenal before, as rather than just providing more data, it creates “unique datasets that can be brought together and cross-referenced to make a whole greater than the parts.”

Announced: 12/22/14 Terms: Not Disclosed Previous Investment: $86.5m Founded: January 2002

Zomato Acquires Cibando. The Rome, Italy-based restaurant search and discovery app provides users with professionally-generated content such as reviews and photos for approximately 82,000 restaurants across various cities in Italy. According to TechCrunch, all of Cibando’s team will be joining the company as they will be transitioning its full user base and traffic to Zomato. Going forward, Zomato plans to scale up its teams in Rome and Milan to 30-40 full-time employees, up from Cibando’s current headcount of 10. TechCrunch also reports Zomato plans to invest $6 million in its newly-acquired Italian operations over the next 2 years, growing the team to 150-200 people across the country’s top six cities.

Announced: 12/18/14 Terms: Not Disclosed Previous Investment: Not Disclosed Founded: January 2011

Foodpanda Acquires Donesi.com, Pauza.hr, and NetPincer. The global online food delivery marketplace announced a series of acquisitions targeting market share in Central Eastern Europe (Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and Hungary). As TechCrunch points out, “the significance of the acquisitions is two-fold: first for how it underscores the rapid acquisition march of takeout delivery companies as they aim for better economies of scale; and the second is the emphasis on emerging markets as a growth engine.” Last month the company announced an asset swap with its competitor Delivery Hero to respectively improve their positions across India, Mexico and Latin America.

Announced: 12/17/14, 12/6/14 (Donesi.com) Terms: Not Disclosed Previous Investment: Not Disclosed Founded: 2008 (Pauza), 1999 (NetPincer)

FUNDING

Instacart Raises $220m. The San Francisco-based on-demand grocery delivery service offers same day grocery delivery via personal shoppers who hand pick items from a variety of grocers, food providers and select retailers in urban areas. The new capital brings the company’s total VC funding to almost $265 million and values it at around $2 billion (in June, the company’s $44m Series B was reportedly valued at $400 million). The company plans to use the funds toward category expansion, continued geographic growth and technology enhancements. Two good reads which dive deeper into the Instacart model and opportunity are at StreetFight (“Why Instacart’s $2 Billion Valuation Doesn’t Spell Bubble”) and Gigaom (“On the way to $220M in funding, Instacart quietly changed its business model”).

Announced: 12/30/14 Stage: Series C Valuation: $2 billion Participating Institutional Investors: Andreessen Horowitz (lead), Canaan Partners, Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures Previous Investment: $54.8 million Founded: July 2012

SpoonJoy Raises Seed Funding. The Bangalore, India-based delivery startup offers a subscription service to deliver custom-made meals to both office and residential customers. Users can select food of their choice including fruits, vegetables, lunch packs and snacks. The funds will be used to expand operations in the city, in addition to growing the customer-base.

Announced: 12/30/14 Stage: Seed Participating Investors: Sachin Bansal (Flipkart), Mekin Maheshwari (Flipkart), Sahil Barua (Delhivery), Abhishek Goyal (Tracxn) Previous Investment: Not Disclosed Launched: April 2013

‘Call a Chicken’ Raises $1.6m. The Chengdu-based WeChat-based chicken-focused food delivery service offers different chicken-based dishes, prepared by “renowned chefs” for home delivery. Customers order via WeChat or by phone (it does not appear there is a website), and the dishes available change periodically and range in price.

Announced: 12/25/14 Stage: Angel Participating Institutional Investors: Not Disclosed Previous Investment: Not Disclosed Founded: Not Disclosed

SideChef Raises $1.2m. The Santa Monica, CA- based step-by-step cooking app and community uses photos and written instructions for every recipe step, with recipes currently sourced from 100 bloggers worldwide. Proceeds from the company’s new funding will be used to create partnerships with various U.S. companies and for continued app development.

Announced: 12/22/14 Stage: Seed Participating Institutional Investors: Empower Investment, Peacock Capital Previous Investment: Not Disclosed Launched: March 2014

Kitchit Raises $7.5m. The San Francisco-based on-demand in-home restaurant experience platform allows customers to book personal chefs for fully customizable experiences, as well as the recently introduced “Kitchit Tonight” which are signature meals for delivery, available same-day if booked by 1pm. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the growth of the marketplace.

Announced: 12/09/14 Stage: Series A Participating Institutional Investors: Javelin Venture Partners (lead), 500 Startups, The Stanford StartX Fund, Silicon Valley Bank Previous Investment: $0.6 million Founded: January 2010

Delivery Hero Invests in “Substantial” Stake In Baedaltong. The Korean food ordering company, which offers its approximately 11 million users a selection of menus from some 150,000 restaurants in South Korea using a “click to call and order” system, will secure a sizable Korean footprint for Delivery Hero. Although TechCrunch reports that a “majority stake” was acquired, the author also concedes that the “exact amount of the investment nor any other financial details” were revealed, thus it is unclear if controlling interest was indeed handed over to Delivery Hero. Regardless, this strategic investment creates a mutually beneficial partnership to capture market share in a region where other players are also bulking up for rapid growth.

Announced: 12/09/14 Stage: Strategic Venture Participating Investors: Delivery Hero Previous Investment: Not Disclosed Founded: 2010

Dinner Lab Launches $2m Private Placement Offering. The New Orleans-based membership-based supper club, which raised $2.1m Seed funding in June, produces pop-up dining events and gathers customer feedback from those sessions to inform ideas for new restaurants. The company is taking advantage of a new type of crowdfunding investment structure for accredited investors, as part of the JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups Acts). According to Forbes, after seeking funding from Venture Capitalists, the company’s CEO Brian Bordainick realized that “the terms set by VCs didn’t meet their needs or expectations.” The company plans to use the new funding to further expand the company’s reach.

Announced: November (the process is still on-going) Stage: Seed Previous Investment: $2.1 million Founded: 2011

PARTNERSHIPS

Amazon.com partners with Ibotta to offer customers cash back on their purchases.

ChowNow integrates Apple Pay, helps its SMB restaurants beat the majors to one-touch checkout.

Rouxbe Cooking School partners with The Plantrician Project to develop Culinary Rx, designed as a food-as-medicine prescription that healthcare and wellness professionals can confidently prescribe to patients and clients.

Postmates launches an API to let third-party sellers offer local delivery.

Drizly opens its API to add alcohol delivery to partners including MillerCoors and Foursquare.

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.

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

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 half of 2014 rounded out with over $3.9 billion invested into private food tech and media companies through equity raises ($1.2b) and acquisitions ($2.7b disclosed). In June, eight acquisitions and seventeen notable financings funneled $237 million into the ecosystem (excluding $7.9 billion between the Micros and OpenTable acquisitions). Delivery and brand marketing were both dominant themes, and earlier-stage companies were prominent with nine of the funding rounds at the seed or series A stage.

The big news in June was of course the acquisition announcements of two significant food tech incumbents: OpenTable and Micros Systems (by Priceline and Oracle, respectively). Both acquirors are outside of what anyone would define as the food tech ecosystem, which is relevant because it signals that the sector is further evolving towards increased institutionalization and consolidation as heavyweights in the tech industry look to the food system to increase market share and layer in new revenue streams. This is why it is important to be in tune with the industry dynamics and strategy of the tech and media players on the periphery of food, because if they don’t already have a strategy around food tech, it’s very likely that many will develop one.

On that note, last month both Jawbone and Fitbit announced updates to incorporate food in a deeper way, and we learned that Jawbone quietly acquired a food and nutrition app last summer. Google threw down the gauntlet to beat Amazon in the same-day delivery war, and Amazon rolled out a food takeout service to directly compete with the likes of GrubHub, Seamless and DeliveryHero. The Street speculated that Yahoo may be considering a food tech acquisition, and Go Daddy filed to raise up to $100m in an IPO. Also on the IPO front, China’s Yelp-Like Dianping has more than 100 million active users for its reviews and discounts for food and entertainment, and is reportedly working with Goldman Sachs to prepare for a U.S. IPO.

M&A

Delivery Hero Acquires Controlling Stake in PedidosYa. The Uruguay-based online food ordering platform currently operates a network of 12,000 partner restaurants in nine countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Uruguay) and will bolster Delivery Hero’s expansion in Latin America,  as well as it its mobile app capabilities. PedidosYa will remain an independent brand, and the acquisition is expected to increase Delivery Hero’s representation to 20 countries spanning four continents.

Announced: 6/26/14  Terms: Not Disclosed  Previous Investment: $2m Series C, $3m Series B, $2m Series A, $500k Seed  Founded: October 2009

FoodPanda Acquires Delivery Club. The Moscow-based online food delivery service aggregator was acquired by FoodPanda, a competitor which is planning aggressive international expansion, expecting to reach 50 countries by 2015.  The combined companies will provide access to over 2,500 restaurants in Russia, and Delivery Club will continue to operate under its own brand. Like other Rocket Internet properties, TechCrunch notes that foodpanda “has focused on emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America, and parts of Africa, where launching a new business is not only relatively inexpensive, but also gives them a chance to build a customer service and logistics network that can help Rocket Internet’s businesses in other verticals.”

Announced: 6/18/14  Terms: Not Disclosed  Previous Investment: $8m Series C, $4m Series B, $1m Series A, $400k Seed  Founded: September 2009

Priceline Announces Acquisition of Opentable. The San Francisco-based online restaurant reservation company will add 15 million users to the Priceline platform while diversifying the travel giant’s offerings to include restaurant marketing and local business services, and the adding potential for new local e-commerce offerings as well. In turn, Priceline plans to utilize its sophisticated ecommerce infrastructure to help fuel OpenTable’s global expansion and cross-market it with its existing booking customers.

OpenTable will continue to operate as an independent business, based in San Francisco, led by its current management team within Priceline. Given OpenTable’s recent prominence as a strategic acquirer in its own right, it will be interesting to see if the reservation platform will be maintain some control over the purse strings in terms of future acquisitions.

For a deep behind-the-scenes look into the bidding process and acquisition, I’d recommend reading Skift’s solid coverage of OpenTable’s courtship of Priceline, as well as the additional disclosure around the bidding process that surfaced afterwards in satisfying the settlement of a shareholder lawsuit. Other thoughtful reads on the broader trends surrounding deal are at Street Fight Mag and PandoDaily.

Announced: 6/13/14  Terms: $2.6b (Cash, $103/share)  Stock Premium: 53% (over previous average stock price in the prior 20 days)  Founded: 1998

NGB Markets Acquires Local Food Systems. Local Food Systems developed an electronic platform that allows wholesale food buyers to indicate the type, number of units, and required timeframe of products they need and indicate a preferred price. The wholesale food order management software will expand the NGB Markets platform to include locally-sourced food, and deliver end-to-end online price quotes, ordering data, and market data through integration with NGB’s QuoteMatrix platform, an online service that aggregates vendor price quotes for buyers as well as electronic purchase order submission.

Announced: 6/18/14  Terms: Not Disclosed (Cash and Stock)  Previous Investment: $425k Seed  Founded: February 2011

Oracle Announces Acquisition of Micros Systems. The publicly-traded Columbia, MD-based restaurant and retail point-of-sale hardware and software company provides enterprise applications, services and hardware in 180 countries worldwide, and is expected to position Oracle as a leader in retail POS software. The combined companies are estimated to account for 19% of the retail POS software installation base. Micros is expected to help boost Oracle’s slowing growth in the application software market, and reflects the growing market size for restaurant technology as businesses adapt to new demands around services offerings, efficiency and security compliance. Despite the increased market share in the space, there are mixed opinions on whether the deal will impact the POS market for smaller restaurants and retailers. The deal is subject to approval by antitrust regulators, which is expected on August 29.

Announced: 6/23/14  Terms: $5.3b (Cash, $68/share)  Stock Premium: 27% (over previous average stock price in the prior 20 days from unofficial announcement on 6/16/14)  Founded: 1977

InfoScout Acquires Capigami (Out Of Milk). The San Francisco-based developer of the Out of Milk mobile shopping and productivity app allows consumers to build and collaborate on shopping lists as well as manage to-do lists. Users also receive location-based mobile coupons and other promotional offers. As AdAge notes, previously InfoScout relied on consumers who use two shopping apps, Receipt Hog and Shoparoo to scan their grocery receipts in exchange for cash back and other rewards like donations to a school of their choice. Now InfoScout will be able to utilize Out of Milk to bolster its access to supermarket purchase data.

Announced:  6/20/14  Terms: Not Disclosed (Cash)  Previous Investment: Undisclosed Seed  Founded: 2010

Groupon Acquires SnapSaves. The Toronto-based grocery coupon app allows shoppers to snap a picture of their grocery receipt and receive money back on selected items through a check in the mail. SnapSaves also offers shoppers instant cash back if they’ve paid more at the store for a grocery item than the price shown in the daily deal. As BetaKit points out, “the real value comes from the data that’s being collected. Once a photo of the grocery receipt is uploaded, SnapSaves receives an insight into the shopping habits of thousands of users, such as what store the user shopped at, day of the week, time of day, basket size and type of payment.” It appears the app will continue to operate under its own brand, however the Groupon acquisition will expand the types of offers, and open up the service to Groupon’s 52 million active customers.

Announced: 6/16/14  Terms: Not Disclosed  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Launched: August 2013

Apple Acquires Spotsetter. 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. As TechCrunch points out, the app will be shutting down, but “the technology, which involves layering social data on top of a maps interface could be used to beef up Apple Maps with features competitor Google lacks.”

Announced: 6/06/14  Terms: Not Disclosed  Previous Investment: $1.3m Seed  Founded: 2011

FUNDING

TechCafe Raises $450k. The New York, NY-based hospitality tech platform and marketplace is built around helping restaurants to discover and integrate restaurant technologies. The platform includes over 500 technology vendors listed in the online marketplace, which allows restaurants to compare and evaluate the most relevant software to their business. For tech vendors that are encumbered by the high cost of user acquisition, TechCafe serves as a targeted marketing channel that provides high quality leads in a cost effective manner.

Announced: 6/30/14  Stage: Seed  Participating Institutional Investors: Not Disclosed  Previous Investment: $300k Angel Round  Founded: 2013

Crowdtwist Raises $9m. The New York-based SaaS intelligence data platform provides omnichannel loyalty and analytics solutions which are used by brands including Pepsi, Nestlé Purina and others. The white label loyalty program enables brands to gain a deeper understanding of how customers engage across various channels in order to build more targeted and active relationships with customers. The company intends to use the funds to scale and grow the business.

Announced: 6/26/14  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: StarVest Partners (lead), Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, TechStars, KBS+P Ventures, SoftBank Capital, Fairhaven Capital Partners  Previous Investment: $6m Series A, $750k Seed  Founded: August 2009

Tastemade Raises $25m. The Santa Monica, CA-based digital media company provides food-focused video content through the Tastemade technology platform and community. Tastemade will use the new capital to continue developing its platform and community, as well as expanding content partnerships with leading brands to reach millennial consumers interested in exploring new ways to share and celebrate food. Strategic lead investor Scripps was particularly interested in Tastemade’s younger audience, international presence (specifically in Latin America and Europe), and mobile initiatives, such as their restaurant review app launched last year.

Announced: 6/26/14  Stage: Series C  Participating Institutional Investors: Scripps Networks Interactive (lead), Comcast Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Liberty Media, Raine Ventures  Previous Investment: $10m Series B, $5.3m Series A, Undisclosed Amount from YouTube  Founded: 2012

Deliveroo Raises £2.7m. The UK-based restaurant delivery service focuses on marketing, selling and delivering meals from premium restaurants that do not usually offer takeout. The company intends to use the funds to further strengthen its logistics technologies and delivery platform.

Announced: 6/26/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Index Ventures (lead), Hoxton Ventures, JamJar Investments  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: February 2013

InfoScout Raises $16m. The San Francisco-based shopper-research firm provides real-time analytics derived from mobile shopping apps that gives brands a comprehensive view of customer behavior, by item, across all retailers. Leading consumer goods companies such as Procter & Gamble, Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo & Unilever leverage InfoScout’s data and analytics to monitor changes in shopper behavior and better understand the ‘why behind the buy.’ The company will use the infusion of capital to grow its consumer panel to one-million participants and expand into key international markets through the acquisition of the shopping list app, Out of Milk (see M&A section above).

Announced: 6/19/14  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: MHS Capital, Horizon Partners, Bain Capital Ventures  Previous Investment: $5m Series A, $400k Seed  Founded: October 2011

Hellofresh Raises $50m. NYC and Berlin-Germany-based subscription meal kit company provides a weekly delivery box containing three to five “ready-to-make meals” with recipes and pre-portioned ingredients. The company also announced expansion to seven new states: Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Nebraska, Louisiana, and reported it ships over a million meals per month in the U.S. The company intends to use funds to continue to increase its marketing presence in the US, as well as expand globally.

Announced: 6/18/14  Stage: Series D  Participating Institutional Investors: Insight Venture Partners (lead), Phenomen VC  Previous Investment: $7.5m Series C, $10m Series B, Undisclosed Series A  Founded: January 2012

Instacart Raises $44m. The San Francisco-based on-demand grocery delivery service connects customers with crowd-sourced personal shoppers who buy their groceries in order to earn a commission (based on the number of items and the number of orders they deliver). Currently offering delivery in 10 U.S. cities, the company essentially serves as a third party home delivery fleet for grocery stores, with relationships and partnerships varying between retailers. The financing round will be used to fuel aggressive expansion to new cities (up to a total of 17 by the end of 2014), continued improvements to the customer experience and the proprietary technology, as well as experimentation around new and innovative models for delivery.

Announced: 6/16/14  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Andreessen Horowitz (lead), Canaan Partners, Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures  Previous Investment: $8.5 Series A, $2.3m Venture Round  Founded: July 2012

GatheredTable Raises $2m. The Seattle-based weekly customized menu planning service. In an interview from earlier this year with the Seattle Times, the company stated that it may receive commissions from grocery sales made through the site, a service it plans to launch in the fall, but it doesn’t plan to sell advertising or get sponsorships from food manufacturers. Instead it’s counting on subscriptions to provide most of its revenue. The company expects to use the new funds for a national launch of its consumer software service.

Announced: 6/10/14  Stage: Seed  Participating Investors: Geoff Entress (Voyager Capital), Howard Schultz (Starbucks)  Previous Investment: $1.8m  Founded: 2013

Ibotta Raises $20m. The Denver-CO-based mobile couponing and loyalty app allows users to earn rebates and cash rewards for interacting with brands by responding to polls, watching videos, reading about new products, and other game-like activities within the app. The rebates are then sent directly to users’ PayPal account after verifying their purchases by taking a picture of their receipts. For brands and retailers, Ibotta positions itself as “a pay-per-sale” advertising platform, which only charges if their ads end in a sale. According to TechCrunch, Ibotta plans to use the funding to scale its business and engineering teams, grown its user base, and expand its saving and offers into the offline affiliate market.

Announced: 6/11/14  Stage: Venture Round  Participating Investors: Jim Clark, Tom Jermoluk  Previous Investment: Undisclosed Series A   Launched: 2012

Love with Food Raises $1.4m. The Foster City, CA-based monthly snack discovery service and food marketing data platform helps brands connect with “foodies” who pay a monthly fee to discover new, organic, all-natural products and submit product feedback. Clients include General Mills, Nestle, Green and Blacks Organic Chocolate, SoyJoy, and Lindt Chocolates. The company plans to use the funds to attract more customers and expand the team to further improve its consumer insight offerings.

Announced: 6/11/14  Stage: Seed  Participating Institutional Investors: 500 Startups, Angel List, El Dorado Ventures, Ironfire Capital, Kapor Capital, Scrum Ventures, TEEC Angel Fund, Juvo Capital Previous Investment: $695k Seed  Founded: 2012

Kitchfix Raises $300k. The Chicago-based healthy meal delivery service targets busy professionals and families by creating and delivering “chef-crafted” ready-to-eat meals using locally sourced, organic, gluten, soy and dairy-free ingredients. The company intends to use the funds to move into a new commercial kitchen, expand its team and operations and accelerate growth.

Announced: 6/11/14  Stage: Seed  Participating Investor: Ken Leonard  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded:2012

Yext raises $50m. The New York-based cloud-based geomarketing software company provides online-marketing tool for SMB brick-and-mortar businesses. Yext’s product allows marketers to manage their local content, listings, store pages, social pages, campaigns and more through its integrated GeoMarketing Cloud. Listings on multiple sites can be edited at one time, social pages can be synced simultaneously, and Web pages can be built without support. As the company moves closer to a likely IPO in 2015, this new funding will support global expansion and new product development.

Announced: 6/04/14  Valuation: $525m  Stage: Series F  Participating Institutional Investors: Insight Venture Partners (lead), Institutional Venture Partners, Marker, Sutter Hill Ventures  Previous Investment: $27m Series E, $10m Series D, $25m Series B/C, $3.5m Series A, $250k Seed  Founded: 2006

Siftit Raises $4m. The Atlanta-based mobile ordering platform makes it easier for restaurants and wholesale suppliers to connect more efficiently, and offers more control of the ordering and spend-management process. The company intends to use the funds to grow in current markets.

Announced: 6/04/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investor: TechOperators  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: January 2013

Urban Remedy Raises $5m. The San Rafael, CA-based nutrition delivery service sells certified-organic, vegan, raw and ready-to-eat meals, snacks and premium juices direct to consumers via online/mobile and a limited number of Urban Remedy branded storefronts. The company will use the new capital to open a new manufacturing facility, hire more e-commerce and food talent, and accelerate marketing efforts. According to the Wall Street Journal, the marketing initiatives could include direct-response campaigns on television and new branded storefronts, along with possible pop-up shops, and store-in-store retail efforts at gyms, universities or airports.

Announced: 6/04/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Venture51  Previous Investment: $1m Seed  Founded: 2010

Fresh Nation Raises $1m. The Stamford, CT-based online marketplace for farmers markets enables consumers to order food directly from their local markets and have it delivered to their home by personal shoppers. The Fresh Nation marketplace digitizes the product offerings across a broad network of neighboring farmers markets, allowing for the purchase, sale and delivery of fresh products from different locales through a single platform. Furthermore, as PandoDaily explains, “unlike other food delivery businesses, Fresh Nation is actually incredibly capital efficient. The company doesn’t need to invest in storage or purchase product in advance.” In conjunction with the funding, the company announced it had just launched in its first West Coast metro, the Los Angeles area, and will use the cash infusion to expand to other locations in California.

Announced: 6/03/14  Stage: Seed  Participating Institutional Investors: Lerer Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Launched: June 2013

Dinner Lab Raises $2.1m. The New Orleans-based membership-based supper club produces pop-up dining events and gathers customer feedback from those sessions to inform ideas for new restaurants. According to TechCrunch, Dinner Lab helps local chefs better understand how well their food and concept resonated with guest via an online dashboard that tells them things like how they scored in different areas, how they compare with other chefs in the area, how well they did with the different demographics. Since launching in New Orleans, Dinner Lab has expanded to nine other cities, including San Francisco, L.A., New York, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Miami, Chicago, Nashville and Austin. According to The Times Picayune, the company will use the funds to help it expand its operation into more cities and grow the data team to gather more market data for the food industry.

Announced: 6/03/14  Stage: Seed  Participating Investors: Dr. John B. Elstrott (Chairman of Whole Foods), angels  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: 2011

Brightfarms Raises Additional $2.4m. The New York-based urban agriculture company develops hydroponic greenhouse farms at urban supermarkets and grocery retailers. In addition to growing local produce nationwide, the company also finances, builds and operates local greenhouse farms, eliminating time, distance and costs from the food supply chain. The company signs long-term purchase agreements with supermarkets that feature fixed prices and minimum volume commitments. The round, which now amounts to $7.4m, will enable the company to build commercial-scale greenhouses to meet the increasing demand from the supermarket industry for locally grown produce. As part of the financing, Gregory Oberholtzer will join the Board of Directors at BrightFarms.

Announced: 6/03/14  Stage: Series B extension  Participating Institutional Investors: WP Global Partners, Emil Capital, NGEN Partners  Previous Investment: $4.9m Series B, $4.3m Series A Founded: January 2011

PARTNERSHIPS

Ibotta partners with Constellation Brands, Mike’s Hard Lemonade Co. and VEEV to drive sales using cash rebates. Customers will be able to use the Ibotta app to purchase both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks from a range of retail outlets including BevMo, Specs, and even select local liquor stores. The partnership will help the brands drive customer engagement, reward loyal customers, and increase sales via mobile cash rebates.

EatStreet Partners with Yelp to bring online ordering to more of Yelp’s restaurants and their customers. Customers can now order food directly from many more restaurant pages on Yelp, through EatStreet’s integration into the Yelp platform.

Time Inc.’s online food portal MyRecipes.com utilizing Roku partnership to launch a streaming channel. The MyRecipes channel on Roku is the first in a new distribution partnership between Time Inc. and Roku that was announced in May, and will feature 250+ videos across 12 categories.

aisle411 and Google partner to launch 3D-mapped shopping solution. Through a partnership with Google’s Project Tango, the in-store mobile marketing firm is prepping to launch an in-store solution that enhances the shopping experience through fully interactive 3D maps. A device will be able to determine what section a consumer is shopping in, even what side of the aisle and which products a shopper is browsing at any given time.

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: June 2014 appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

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.

Three acquisitions and seventeen notable financings funneled close to $575 million into the food tech ecosystem in May. Restaurant technology and ecommerce were both dominant themes, and earlier-stage companies made a comeback with eleven of the fundraises at the seed or series A stage.

That said, the trend towards larger rounds was prominent, even at early stages, with an average seed size of $3m and series A size of $6.1m. This reflects an overall theme in the tech industry of shifting company lifecycles, as many startups have the ability to build the product and gain traction earlier than previous generations; a concept that is well-articulated in Ben Narasin’s article, “Series A Is The New Series B.”

In other news, the battle within the restaurant reservations, ordering and delivery space continues to escalate as a number of incumbents throw their hats into new territories. Yelp waded deeper into reservations using its acquired SeatMe technology by offering free reservations as long as the restaurant has “claimed” its Yelp profile page. TripAdvisor has put its acquisition of LaFourchette to quick use, and has already begun to give users the option to reserve tables from TripAdvisor’s city-information pages at some 12,000 restaurants across Europe. And – spoiler alert for June’s report – Priceline forged into the restaurant world with its $2.6 billion acquisition of OpenTable.

But that is just the beginning. Facebook’s new restaurant menu service gets it halfway to GrubHub, as restaurants can now post menus on their Facebook pages. Amazon is now (slowly) rolling out a food takeout service, a direct competitor to GrubHub, Seamless and DeliveryHero (and is also weighing the possibility of acquiring companies to expand in services, according to TechCrunch). Square recently introduced a new app called Order, that allows users to browse the selection of nearby shops, cafes, and restaurants, choose what they want, buy it (and optionally add a tip), and then receive a notification to pick it up when ready. And even Airbnb is joining the party in trying to disrupt the restaurant sector with its new pilot program (in San Francisco) for people to host home-cooked meals served in their homes.

M&A

Intuit Acquires Lettuce. The Venice, CA–based inventory order management platform will help position Intuit as the go-to place for small and medium businesses to run their offices in the cloud. According to PandoDaily, “Lettuce will be integrated into Intuit’s own SaaS-based Quickbooks online, offering small business customers another reason to transition from the company’s legacy desktop software offering to its future-minded cloud platform.” Also according to a post-acquisition update by PandoDaily, rather than sunsetting the product as often happens with acquisitions, “Lettuce’s existing platform is being treated within Intuit as a future hub through which Intuit customers will manage inventory, finances, and a variety of other functions”.

Announced: 5/08/14  Terms: Estimated $30m cash  Previous Investment: $3.1m Seed  Founded: January 2012

Google Acquires Appetas. The Seattle, WA-based restaurant marketing platform, which enables restaurants to create web, mobile, and social sites, will be shut down after the acquisition, although in their announcement about the acquisition, the team alluded to broadening their focus at Google to include all merchants. As the Wall Street Journal points out, “Appetas fits Google’s ambitions for improving the quality of websites and making it easier to search for local businesses. Both can help generate more revenue from search advertising.”

Announced: 5/07/14  Terms: Not Disclosed  Previous Investment: $120k Seed  Founded: July 2012

TripAdvisor Acquires LaFourchette. The acquisition of the Paris-based European online restaurant reservation platform will help attract and retain users and restaurants to the TripAdvisor website, while presenting an opportunity to grow restaurant reservation revenues. LaFourchette also provides software to help restaurants move online, including a flexible online booking, discounts and data tool, which could enhance the relationship with restaurants. LaFourchette is a partner to over 12,000 restaurants in France, Spain and Switzerland, and it will continue to operate from its existing European offices, with headquarters in Paris and Barcelona.

Announced: 5/06/14  Terms: ~$140 million (€100 million) cash  Previous Investment: $14.8m  Founded: 2006

FUNDING

Grove Labs Raises $2m. The Somerville, MA-based indoor gardening startup develops technology to bring sustainable, fresh and organic foods into homes through stack-able hydroponic plant growth modules. The company plans to use the funding to build the team: designers with graphics experience, senior software engineers, senior hardware engineers, and a branding/marketing manager.

Announced: 5/29/14  Stage: Seed  Participating Institutional Investors: Upfront Ventures (lead), AngelList, Felicis Ventures, Galvanize VC, RSE Ventures  Previous Investment: Angel  Founded: 2013

Swipely Raises $20m. The Providence, RI payment processing company compiles and analyzes data from payment networks, POS systems and the social web to provide restaurants with financial, operational and marketing data, as well as actionable insights for things like menu item profitability and staff training to boost revenue and tips. The proceeds will be used for marketing, product expansion and continued team build out.

Announced: 5/28/14  Stage: Series C  Participating Institutional Investors: Pritzker Group Venture Capital (lead), First Round Capital, Index Ventures, Shasta Ventures  Previous Investment: $12, Series B, $7.5m Series A, $1m Seed  Founded: October 2009

Datalogix Raises $45m. The Westminster, CO-based examines the offline sales impact from ads on Facebook and Twitter for retailers and CPG clients. As I noted in February, Datalogix acquired Spire Marketing which uses analytics from grocery loyalty card data, point-of-sale purchase data, and trade-level data to power in-store marketing initiatives which drive spontaneous purchases. TechCrunch reports that Datalogix will use the funding to develop a wider suite of audience and measurement products. Furthermore, The Wall Street Journal recently reported the company was in talks with Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and Barclays about backing a $75 million IPO.

Announced: 5/28/14  Stage: Series C  Participating Institutional Investors: Institutional Venture Partners, Wellington Management  Previous Investment: $25m Series B, $1.5m Venture Round, $15m Series A  Founded: January 2002

Farmeron Raises $2.7m. The Columbus, OH-based dairy and cattle farm business management software that allows farmers to update and manage their data online. TechCrunch reports the funding will be used to go after enterprise sales.

Announced: 5/23/14  Stage: Seed Extension  Participating Institutional Investors: NextView Ventures, SoftTech VC  Previous Investment: $1.4m Seed  Founded: December 2010

Yoyo Raises $5m. The London-based mobile payment and loyalty app allows users to purchase items using an online wallet and receive loyalty points for rewards or discounts with each transaction. The app is currently available at food and drink outlets at Imperial College London, and is planned to expand to the University of Greenwich and University of Westminster soon, as well as high-street retailers and other universities. The funding will be used to expand in the UK, and continue to grow its partnership programme with Point of Sale software vendors and leading catering companies. The company plans to expand into the US and European markets next year.

Announced: 5/22/14  Stage: Seed  Participating Institutional Investors: Imperial Innovations (lead), Telefónica, Firestartr  Previous Investment: $1.2m Seed  Founded: 2013

DoorDash Raises $17.3m. The Palo Alto-based on-demand restaurant food delivery platform considers itself a “tech and logistics company that happens to deal in food”. As I noted in October, the company seems to have visions beyond food delivery, as its Angel List profile describes it as a “local, on-demand FedEx, starting with restaurant food delivery.” The company will use the funding to grow out the team, continue developing the dispatch technology and pursue a national rollout.

Announced: 5/22/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Sequoia Capital (lead), Khosla Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Pejman Mar Ventures, Ted Zagat  Previous Investment: $2.4 Seed  Founded: February 2013

Drizly Raises $2.5m. The Sherborn, MA on-demand alcohol delivery startup allows user to order their favorite beer, wine or liquor and have it delivered in 20-40 minutes. Delivery drivers then authenticate and validate IDs using the company’s forensic ID verification technology. Drizly will use the seed capital to expand distribution of its service into new markets; build user experiences and interfaces; increase operational capacity and customer service; and drive customer awareness and acquisition.

Announced: 5/21/14  Stage: Seed Extension  Participating Institutional Investors: Continental Investors (lead), Abundance Partners, Atlas Venture, Breakaway Ventures, Fairhaven Capital Partners, RSE Ventures, Reynolds and Company Venture Partners, Suffolk Equity Partners Previous Investment: $2.25 Seed  Founded: July 2012

NoWait Raises $10m. The Pittsburgh-based app for restaurant waiting lists and mobile network for casual-dining restaurants launched its consumer-facing guest app earlier this year. The company will use the funds to expand its network of restaurants and consumers, ramp up engineering to support its technology roadmap, and continue developing more products and services to enhance the guest experience and restaurant operations.

Announced: 5/20/14  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Drive Capital, Birchmere Ventures  Previous Investment: $2m Venture Raise, $2m Series A, $115k Seed  Founded: 2010

Yummy77 Raises $20m. The Shanghai-based ecommerce company which ships groceries and seasonally fresh products (including seafood, meat, and dairy) across China, took in a strategic investment from Amazon, which will hold a minority stake in the company. According to Technode this marks the first time that Amazon has invested in a Chinese company after launching in the country ten years ago, and Yummy77 will continue to operate independently instead of being folded into Amazon China. TechNode also revealed that Yummy77′s sales exceed $100 million yuan (about $16 million) in December 2013.

Announced: 5/19/14  Stage: Strategic Venture  Participating Investor: Amazon  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: February 2013

Pinterest Raises $200m. With this most recent funding, the visual search platform is now one of the most valuable venture-backed startups in the world. Although it is still early in the company’s revenue cycle, many advertisers see Pinterest as a more valuable advertising host than other social sites, since its users often purchase products pinned on the site — which could allow the company to start charging higher ad rates. For example, Pinterest recently started selling advertising to major corporations such as General Mills and Kraft, charging up to $2 million for three- to six-month commitments, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company plans to use the additional cash to expand its global presence. It currently serves 31 countries and has offices in France, the U.K. and Japan.

Announced: 5/16/14  Valuation: $5bn  Stage: Series F  Participating Institutional Investors: SV Angel (lead, via a special purpose vehicle), Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, Fidelity Investments, Valiant Capital Partners  Previous Investment: $225m Series E, $200m Series D, $100m Series C, $27m Series B, $10m Series A, $500k Seed  Founded: 2009

Posiq Raises $3.2m. The San Jose-based CRM solution for restaurants uses mobile phone technology to monitor and engage guests each time they visit, learning purchase habits, preferences, demographics and social profiles. Posiq will invest the new funds in ongoing product development and expanding sales channels.

Announced: 5/15/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Thayer Ventures, SVG Partners  Previous Investment: Angel  Founded: 2010

Swagbucks Raises $60m. The El Segundo, CA-based online loyalty rewards community differentiates itself from other coupon/loyalty companies by offering rewards for everyday Web discovery activity – including searching, shopping, entertainment, discounted offers, surveys and games. The new funding will be invested in mobile, product development, and expansion into international markets. In addition to the new capital, Swagbucks named former Fandango.com and Shopzilla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Chuck Davis as CEO. Swagbucks reports that it has been profitable since 2010 and had $53 million in 2013 revenues, up 51% from 2012.

Announced: 5/13/14  Stage: Venture  Participating Institutional Investors: Technology Crossover Ventures  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: February 2008

Boxed Raises $6.5m. The New York, NY-based mobile commerce company offers customers over 800 warehouse club products with no membership fees and expedited shipping to all of the contiguous 48 states. Its back-end software has enabled Boxed to optimize customers’ shopping experience, from purchase to fulfillment to delivery. According to CEO Chieh Huang, about 80 percent of items added to user’s carts don’t come from search, but come from the app’s discovery mechanism.

Announced: 5/13/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Greycroft Partners  (lead), BoxGroup, Social Starts, Eniac Ventures, Signia Venture Partners, First Round  Previous Investment: $1.1m Seed  Founded: June 2013

Gousto Raises $300,000. The London-based subscription meal kit delivery service provides chef-developed recipes and organic ingredients in exact proportions. The company intends to use this latest investment to automate company operations and improve its in-house tech capabilities.

Announced: 5/08/14  Stage: Seed Extension  Participating Investors: Ian West, Andrea Raffel  Previous Investment: $2m Seed, £500k Angel Founded: June 2012

Delectable Raises $3m. The San Francisco-based mobile iOS app for discovering and buying wines has a dataset of over 2 million wines which provides identification and information on any bottle from a digital photo. The company intends to use the funds to grow the engineering team and technology.

Announced: 5/07/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Investors: Deep Fork Capital, DN Capital, Ceyuan Ventures, David Sacks, Max Levchin, Joe Lonsdale, Gary Vaynerchuk  Previous Investment: $2m Angel  Founded: 2011

Table8 Raises $4.6m. The San Francisco-based restaurant reservations app charges users a fee to book last-minute reservations at restaurants that are otherwise fully booked. The app is live in San Francisco and has plans to expand to other cities including New York, London and Chicago in the near future. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the roll out of Table8 across the US, to develop their platform and make it available through the App Center.

Announced: 5/07/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investor: Concur Perfect Trip Fund (strategic investment arm of Concur Technologies)  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: 2013

Bulu Box Raises $2m. The Lincoln, Neb.-based ecommerce company provides a subscription service offering supplements, weight loss and nutrition product samples. The financing will enable key hires, enhanced customer acquisition channels and product development.

Announced: 5/07/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Dundee Venture Capital (lead), Midwest Venture Alliance, Mid-American Angels Investments, Two Bridges Capital  Previous Investment: $550k Seed  Founded: April 2012

PARTNERSHIPS

Facebook partners with SinglePlatform (Constant Contact) to allow restaurants post menus on their Facebook pages. Aiming to keep users on the platform and possibly prompt more ads, Facebook’s partnership utilizes SinglePlatform’s technology to help local businesses showcase products, photos and menus. Restaurants that already use SinglePlatform will automatically have their menus added to their Facebook pages, which can help boost traffic to their stores.

Zuppler and LevelUp Partner to bridge the gap between online ordering and mobile payments. The partnership provides restaurants with a ‘commerce everywhere’ solution by combining mobile payment and in-app ordering into a single mobile experience.

LoyalBlocks partners with TGI Fridays to provide in-store beacon alerts. The partnership allows patrons to opt-in and receive customized offers, access personal assistance via a Bluetooth-triggered loyalty app and use Wi-Fi to recieved rewards, read reviews, compare prices and look up information.

Gannett’s Key Ring partners with inMarket’s Mobile to Mortar’ Platform to use beacons to provide consumers with individualized content as they shop. The integration of beacon technology into Key Ring allows brands and advertisers to reach shoppers at the point of purchase and provide consumers with targeted content as they shop.

Focus POS Integrates with Red Book Connect’s HotSchedules. When integrated with Focus POS software, the HotSchedules platform allows cloud-based communications, advanced sales forecasting and scheduling management.

PrestoFresh Grocery Delivery partners with Zagara’s Marketplace to expand delivery area and products. With the partnership, PrestoFresh, an online, next-day grocery delivery service, will have access to Zagara’s inventory, including locally raised produce and fresh-cut meats.

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: May 2014 appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

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.

With two IPOs, fifteen private company fundraises and one acquisition, April brought a serious influx of cash into the food tech ecosystem totaling close to $1.1 billion. Grubhub and JustEat together raised close to $800 million in their IPOs, with private investment rounding out at $270 million. Delivery was a prominent theme as thirteen of the 18 deals involve direct-to-consumer delivery ranging from ecommerce to meals to restaurant dishes. Also notable was the lack of angel/seed rounds and substantial shift towards larger deals, with 8 of the 15 private companies raising over $10 million, and an average raise of $19 million.

While investors continue to make big bets on the delivery space, and internet incumbents are increasingly eying same-day delivery as the key to tackling brick-and-mortar retailers, food in particular brings an assortment of unique logistics to the table, and in general, consumers are still reluctant to pay anywhere near enough to cover the cost of speedy deliveries. Turning a profit will not be easy. As The Economist points out, firms such as Amazon, Google and Walmart are willing to lose money on deliveries for the data they glean about shopping habits as well as ad-ons and up-selling opportunities.

For the rest of the companies in this space however, most disruption is driven by venture-backed land grabs to allow money-losing start-ups to flourish, while providing services that “unsubsidized” businesses can’t match. While the “profitless-on-purpose way of doing business” is beneficial to consumers, Kevin Roose of New York Magazine argues that this practice is “deeply unfair competitive terrain for regular businesses,” and “trying to compete in the VC-backed economy as a profit-conscious business is like running a triathlon with ankle weights.” Without a subsidizing sugar daddy it will be tough to compete in the on-demand food market, as San Francisco-based Chefler recently discovered. Despite the hurdles, even the founder of Webvan is unable to resist, returning again to attempt to conquer the opportunity of grocery delivery.

M&A

Blue Bottle Coffee Acquires Tonx. The Los Angeles-based subscription coffee startup ships high quality whole beans, within 24 hours of roasting, directly to consumers. The Tonx team, which includes a co-founder of Foodzie, will now be responsible for creating the digital strategy for Blue Bottle and over time, the Tonx brand will fold into Blue Bottle. The Oakland-based coffee roaster also acquired LA-based Handsome Coffee Roasters which adds a downtown a Los Angeles-area roasting facility as well as a downtown-area coffee shop location.

Announced: 4/07/14  Terms: Not Disclosed  Previous Investment: Seed  Founded: 2012

FUNDING

PunchTab Raises $6.25m. The Palo Alto, CA omni-channel engagement and insights platform is a multi-channel loyalty and engagement platform that enables agencies, brands and enterprise organizations to incentivize user behavior and drive business success. Customers include Kroger, Arby’s and Nestle. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the launch of a new Big Data analytics product for brands and agencies, expand its sales force, and continue to hire technology professionals.

Announced: 4/30/15  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Mohr Davidow Ventures (lead)  Previous Investment: $5.25m Seed  Founded: 2011

Blue Apron Raises $50m. The New York-based meal kit delivery service ships pre-portioned foods (with recipes) to users cooking at home. The new funds will be used to support Blue Apron’s business growth, including hiring across all divisions, expanding geographically, adding warehouse space and investing in operations technology, marketing and dedicated supplier partnerships. See our video from last fall with CEO Matt Salzberg, as he speaks about the business model and mission, which digs deeper into the company’s sourcing policies, differentiating features and distribution infrastructure.

Announced: 4/30/14  Valuation: $500m  Stage: Series C  Participating Institutional Investors: Stripes Group (lead), Bessemer Venture Partners, First Round Capital  Previous Investment: $5m Series B (Reportedly valued at $32m), $3m Series A, $900k Seed  Founded: 2012

500friends Adds Strategic Investment. The San Francisco-based loyalty and marketing SaaS company brought in an undisclosed amount of strategic investment from key retail, loyalty, and e-commerce leaders. The company plans to take advantage of the connections and expertise of its new investors to expand its customer base of over 50 leading omni-channel and e-commerce brands, including 1800Flowers.com, Omaha Steaks, and Kabam.

Announced: 4/28/14  Stage: Series B extension  Participating Investors: Matt Howland (former CEO of LoyaltyLab), Neel Grover (former CEO of Buy.com), Michael Butler (former head of e-commerce at HP), Jim Keller (former CMO of Shoebuy), Abdul Popal (SVP at CafePress), Brandon Proctor (CEO of Ice.com)  Previous Investment: $5m Series B, $4.5m Series A; $1.4m Seed  Founded: 2010

Caviar Raises $13m.  The San Francisco-based high-end restaurant delivery service allows customers to order meals from restaurants that typically do not deliver, with Caviar-employed drivers serving as the delivery force. Before bringing on each new restaurant, Caviar performs market research and taste-testing, and sends professional photographers to capture all of the restaurant’s available dishes and uploads the photos and descriptions to their website.  With 250 restaurant partners, Caviar will put the recent funding towards expansion into new markets, with plans to roll out to all major US cities by the end of 2014.

Announced: 4/28/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Tiger Global (lead), Andreessen Horowitz, Mixt Greens  Previous Investment: $2m Seed  Founded: July 2012

ShopKeep Raises $25m. The New York-based point-of-sale solution builds point-of-sale software for mobile devices and tablets. The ShopKeepPOS – a combination of hardware and cloud-based software – is used by more than 10,000 storefronts ranging from food and wine purveyors, “quick-service” restaurants like coffee shops, bakeries or other counter-service establishments to small retail shops. ShopKeep plans to use its new funding for hiring, to set up new offices in the U.S. and to roll out its new, mobile phone-based system allowing staff at independent stores to roam the aisles, helping customers check out on the spot.

Announced: 4/24/14  Stage: Series C  Participating Institutional Investors: Thayer Street Partners, Canaan Partners, TTV Capital, Tribeca Venture Partners, Contour Venture Partners  Previous Investment: $10.3m Series B (valuation of $35m), $2.2m Series A  Founded: October 2008

Delivery Hero Raises $85m. The Berlin, Germany-headquartered global network of online food ordering marketplaces operates in 14 markets across four continents. Just months after raising $88 million this past January, the new funds will be used to solidify its presence in existing markets by increasing investment in marketing and price discounts (including a permanent 25% promotion on selected restaurants in Germany) to win a leading position. It is also likely that the company will use some of its war chest for acquisition(s), and according to Tech Crunch, Delivery Hero is aiming for 2015 for a possible IPO. The company has no plans to enter the U.S. market at this time.

Announced: 4/23/14  Stage: Series F  Participating Institutional Investors: Luxor Capital Group, with participation from unnamed existing investors  Previous Investment: $88m Series E, $80m Series D, $33m Series C, $15m Series B, 5.6m Series A Founded: September 2010

AgLocal Raises $1.3m. The San Francisco-based e-commerce platform for buying and selling responsibly-raised meats began as a B2B marketplace for meat, connecting animal farmers to buyers including top-rated chefs, but has now pivoted to become a consumer-facing service. Fast Company and TechCrunch provided some insight into the major shift co-founder Naithan Jones and the startup undertook and why it was so necessary. On the new e-commerce site, online shoppers can browse through the meat products offered by family-operated farms, which are paid for on a subscription basis (currently only available to customers on the West Coast). The company plans to open up a facility in Chicago and expand to the Midwest later this year.

Announced: 4/23/14  Stage: Venture  Participating Institutional Investors: OPENAIR Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Chicago Ventures  Previous Investment: $1m Venture Round, $1.5m Seed  Founded: May 2011

ezCater Raises $3m. The Boston-based catering platform connects people with local caterers and restaurants across the U.S, with a specific focus on business catering. As one of the oldest existing food ordering platforms the company has 30,000 caterers on the website, which provides a standardized way of displaying menus. The company will use the funds to add 20,000 caterers to its site.

Announced: 4/15/14  Stage: Venture  Participating Institutional Investors: Breton Capital Management, LaunchPad Ventures  Previous Investment: $1.0m Venture Round, $2.2m Series A, $630k Seed  Founded: August 2007

NatureBox Raises $18m. The healthy snack subscription commerce company charges a monthly subscription fee for home-delivery of an assortment of healthy snacks, as well as recipes and ideas for nutritional eats. Rather than sourcing from large CPG companies, NatureBox produces all the food itself and currently has more than 130 SKUs. According to PandoDaily, NatureBox continues to add new products to its catalog and is also exploring additional new revenue channels as well, which will “almost surely mean offering a traditional ecommerce store and may eventually mean selling its products through brick-and-mortar grocers.”

Announced: 4/14/14  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Canaan Partners (lead), General Catalyst, Softbank Capital  Previous Investment: $8.5m Series A, $2m Seed  Founded: January 2012

Munchery Raises $28m.  The San Francisco-based meal delivery service delivers prepared meals, created by Munchery chefs, that are delivered cold and only need to be heated up. Munchery, which currently only operates in San Francisco, will partly use the funds to expand into Seattle, where construction of a new kitchen is already under way. The company has a goal of being in 15 to 20 cities within the next few years, and will focus on local tastes and preferences by hiring local chefs with each new market.

Announced: 4/10/14  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Sherpa Ventures (lead), Menlo Ventures, e.ventures  Previous Investment: $4m Series A, Seed  Founded: April 2011

Drync Raises $2.1m. The Cambridge, MA mobile social network for wine drinkers released an iPad version of its app in conjunction with the funding announcement, which allows users to save wines they like, manage their wine cellars, and get recommendations for new bottles worth uncorking. By taking a photo of a wine label, the 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. According to Tech Crunch, the additional funding will go towards customer acquisition and allow it to grow its team.

Announced: 4/09/10  Stage: Seed  Participating Institutional Investors: Crosslink Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, KEC Ventures, Foundry Group  Previous Investment: $900k Angel  Founded: 2008

Spoonrocket Raises $11m. The Oakland, CA-based food delivery service features fresh meals with a limited number of menu items stored in heating equipment delivered home in minutes. The company also operates a meal matching program (World Food Program USA) for every meal purchased, costumers donate one to a child in need. The company intends to use the funds to expand its business.

Announced: 4/09/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Foundation Capital, General Catalyst  Previous Investment: $2.5m Seed  Founded: June 2013

Closely Raises $3m. The Denver, CO-based digital marketing platform for small businesses is the maker of Perch, a social analytics app for small businesses. The app provides more than 35,000 business owners with a view into the latest Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Google+, Instagram, Foursquare, Groupon, and Living Social posts. The company intends to use the funds to build out its SMB marketplace platform, Perch, and expand support for small businesses throughout North America.

Announced: 4/08/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: Grotech Ventures (lead), Steadfast Venture Capital, CNF Investments  Previous Investment: $4m Seed  Founded: October 2009

EatStreet Raises $6m. The Madison, WI-based restaurant ordering and marketing platform has grown by focusing on secondary markets across the US, and providing small and medium sized restaurants with competitive tools they often can’t afford. The company intends to use the funding to continue to develop the platform, and enhance the customer ordering experience, double its staff and expand to more than 15,000 restaurants in 150 cities by the end of the year – including larger markets like Chicago and Los Angeles.

Announced: 4/07/14  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: CSA Partners, Cornerstone Opportunity Partners, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Independence Equity, Silicon Valley Bank  Previous Investment: $2m Series A  Founded: 2010

Buzz Points Raises $19m. The Austin, TX -based provider of loyalty and rewards programs, (previously named Fisoc) offers a reward system for consumers by linking community banks, credit unions and other financial institutions in local communities with their local merchants. Of note, the round included strategic investor Discover Financial Services. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company will use the funds to expand from one salesperson to five or six and enter new geographies around the nation with the goal of shifting consumers to local merchants via financial incentives.

Announced: 4/1/14  Valuation: $65m  Stage: Series D  Participating Institutional Investors: Discover Financial Services, Lead Edge Ventures, KEC Ventures, Greycroft Partners  Previous Investment:  $7.5m  Founded: 2009

PARTNERSHIPS

Epicurious Partners with inMarket to Use In-Store Tracking Beacons. Through the partnership, Epicurious aims to deliver information and deals on partner products to people who have downloaded its self-titled app. The publisher, which will implement the tracking system for its Apple iOS app before an Android rollout, is only just testing the mobile tracking and targeting technology and how it would operate in a live store environment.

Vice Media and FremantleMedia Partner to Launch Online Food Network. Both companies will develop and produce digital content for the multi-channel food platform, which was built for a millennial audience, and the content will be featured on the VICE food vertical, which FremantleMedia will take to TV around the world.

MyCheck Partners with PayPal to Allow Users to Pay At Table, Split Bills And Tip Directly From PayPal App. The new collaboration allows PayPal users to pay for select restaurant bills and bar tabs, split their bill, tip their servers, redeem offers and more.

QikServe Partners with PayPal to Enable Mobile Food Ordering and Payments at UK Establishments. Mobile technology company QikServe announced a collaboration with PayPal that will allow the United Kingdom hospitality sector to take orders and payment using the PayPal app on their customer’s smartphone.

Lavu iPad POS Partners with LoyalTree to Offer Single-Click Integration, Targeted Analytics, and Programs to Reward Loyal Customers. Benefits of the partnership include connected backend dashboards for access to customer histories and customizable targeted marketing campaigns.

Personal concierge app Sosh partners with OpenTable to Make Restaurant Reservations Directly Within the Sosh App. The partnership will allow users to make reservations for restaurants that come up as recommendations in the Sosh app with a couple taps on the phone.

Look & Cook Partners With Amazon Fire TV to Be The Digital Food Network. Amazon’s newly launched media streaming box, Amazon Fire TV  – which offers shows, games and apps like Youtube, Netflix and HBO – now comes standard with Look & Cook, a recipe app created by Israeli publishing startup Kinetic Art. In addition to the Amazon Fire TV partnership, the team is working on a project with the James Beard Foundation, which includes creative vegetable recipes by renowned chefs like Thomas Keller, Mario Batali, Grant Achatz and Alice Waters, among others.

Merchant Warehouse and TabbedOut Partner to Enhance the Reach of Mobile Payments and Digital Marketing in the Hospitality Industry. The partnership will serve to co-market each company’s payment solutions, and provides for the seamless integration and distribution of TabbedOut across a wide population of venues in the hospitality industry.

LiveDeal Partnership with Menu1.com Adds Over 120 Restaurant Sales Professionals. The LiveDeal program will now be an ‘included value-added feature’ of the Menu1 program, where restaurants will automatically be enrolled into the LiveDeal program, whether they ultimately sign up for the Menu1 program or not.

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: April 2014 appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

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 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 momentum continues with six acquisitions in the month of February, and eight investments totaling $75.9m. Grocery was a dominant theme among the acquisitions, with four of the deals adding heft to technology platforms in the grocery sector, while restaurant ordering/delivery was overwhelmingly prevalent among five of the eight investments (perhaps reflecting the anticipation of the upcoming public market debuts). Despite the recent talk of an impending Series B crunch, all but two investments were Series B and beyond, with an average deal size of $9.5m across all deals.

The past couple of weeks have continued to signal there is solid public market appetite for this sector. Coupons.com debuted on the NYSE at $16 per share and closed up 88% at $30 a share on the first day of trading, with a market capitalization of $2.2 billion. Grubhub set the share price range for the IPO at $20 to $22 a share, which would value GrubHub at more than $1.7 billion at the midpoint. And in London, Just Eat is gearing up for an IPO which is expected to value the company at £700m to £900m ($1.2b to $1.5b).

To boot, there is a ton of activity happening in the hyperlocal search sector between Yahoo, Yelp, YP, Grubhub, Opentable, Foursquare, Microsoft, Google, and more. Check out the “Partnerships” section at the end for more color.

M&A

Walmart acquires Yumprint. The Seattle-based startup built recipe search technology that understands recipe semantics, matches ingredients to advertisements, understands consumer taste preferences, calculates nutritional information and prepares shopping lists from recipes, according to the company’s website. The startup will be folded into Walmart’s e-commerce division, @WalmartLabs, and Walmart plans to use Yumprint’s recipe technology for its grocery delivery efforts on Walmart.com and Walmart To Go.

Announced: 2/26/14   Terms: No Disclosed  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: 2011

MyFitnessPal Acquires Sessions. The San Francisco-based behavioral health startup pairs people with personal coaches who train via smartphones. According to the Wall Street Journal, the team will join MyFitnessPal, although the current Sessions app will be discontinued, and the “startup’s team [will] build a new one as part of MyFitnessPal’s larger offering.”

Announced: 2/19/14  Terms: Not Disclosed  Previous Investment: Seed  Founded: 2012

Kroger Acquires YOU Technology. The San Francisco-based coupon technology company serves digital coupons for more than 20 retail clients including Kroger, representing a network that includes over 10,000 retail stores. Its retailer-centric, cloud-based platform bridges the gap between online engagement and in-store purchases, creating a measurable way for retailers and brands to drive consumer purchase decisions. You Technology will operate as an independent company within the Kroger organization, and will continue to serve existing and future retail customers. In the release, Kroger mentioned its plan to expand its presence in Silicon Valley, and alluded to future potential acquisitions; “Kroger’s accelerated growth strategy includes targeted capital investments to … strengthen its connection with customers through the growing digital and mobile channels.”

Announced: 2/11/14  Terms: Not Disclosed  Previous Investment: Not Disclosed  Founded: 2008

Datalogix Buys Spire Marketing. The Monroe, CT-based shopper-marketing firm uses analytics from grocery loyalty card data, point-of-sale purchase data, and trade-level data to power in-store marketing initiatives which drive spontaneous purchases. The company handles shopper analytics for 24 regional supermarket retailers, who have a combined 30 million households in their loyalty-card database, or roughly a third of U.S. households. This acquisition adds a powerful new dimension for Datalogix, which examines the offline sales impact from ads on Facebook and Twitter for retailers and CPG clients, as CEO Eric Roza reports to Advertising Age; “We think there’s going to be some really interesting cross pollination, which no one really has tried to do, between mid-size specialty retailers and mid-size grocers, which are two groups of retailers who’ve had nothing to do with each other historically, but we think they share a lot in common.”

Announced: 2/11/14  Terms: Undisclosed (cash and stock)  Previous Investment: Undisclosed  Founded: 2007

MyWebGrocer Acquires Buy4Now. The Dublin, Ireland-based software company provides grocery and retail clients with e-commerce solutions, including customized web storefronts, merchandising, fulfillment, ERP integration, customer communication and more. This acquisition builds upon MWG’s earlier acquisition of Buy4Now’s U.S. subsidiary in 2008. In the release, MWG notes that an integration of Buy4Now’s capabilities, including multi-currency and multilingual platforms, will position the company to accelerate international expansion. Buy4Now will operate as a subsidiary of MyWebGrocer.

Announced: 2/06/14  Terms: Not Disclosed  Previous Investment: €3m Series A  Founded: August 2000

OpenTable Acquires Ness Computing. The Los Altos, CA-based personalized restaurant recommendations app will be discontinued in April, and its technology will be incorporated into Open Table’s restaurant reservation platform. The team will join OpenTable’s San Francisco headquarters. In conjunction with the announcement, OpenTable announced it would be launching a pilot of a mobile payments service in San Francisco. Although the deal was announced to be worth $17.3 million, the $5m in cash that Ness had on its balance sheet means the net value was actually $11.3 million.

Announced: 2/06/14  Terms: $17.3m (cash)  Previous Investment: $5m Series A, $15m Series B  Founded: October 2009

FUNDING

Dash Raises $1.2m. Brooklyn-based mobile payment platform for restaurants, bars and clubs allows patrons to check-in, view, split, and pay their tab from their smartphone. The company intends to use the funds to expand in NY and launch in Chicago. In conjunction with the announcement, the company released a iOS 7 update for the app which includes iBeacon integration.

Announced: 2/27/14  Stage: Seed (extension)  Participating Institutional Investors: New York Angels, Caerus Ventures  Previous Investment: $700k Seed  Founded: January 2011

Granular Raises $4.2m. The San Francisco-based provider of a cloud software and analytics platform for farmers, formerly known Solum, delivers functionality around four core areas: planning, production, marketing and accounting. The solution captures critical production and financial data from each cropping cycle and uses advanced analytics to suggest opportunities for financial, operational and agronomic optimization. In conjunction with the raise, the company announced it sold its soil science business to Monsanto Company. The proceeds from financing (and the sale to Monsanto) will be used to expand the company’s engineering team, as well as the sales and customer support teams across the U.S.

Announced: 2/24/14  Stage: Venture Round  Participating Institutional Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Khosla Ventures  Previous Investment: $2m Seed, $4.5m Series A, $17m Series B  Founded: 2009

Postmates Raises $16m. The San Francisco-based online delivery service is a developer of consumer-facing logistics software that dispatches and guides couriers through major metropolitan areas to deliver local goods including prepared food, groceries and retail goods. The company operates in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Seattle, and New York, and has partnered with grocers including Whole Foods. Postmates intends to use the funds to grow its operations, design and engineering teams and expand geographically. Of note, in between this round and the Series A, Postmates also added three high profile investors last November for an undisclosed amount to “help to advise as it scales up and continues expansion into even more markets going forward.”

Announced: 2/18/14  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Spark Capital (lead), Matrix Partners, Crosslink Capital, SoftTech VC  Previous Investment: $750k Angel, $1.2m Seed, $5m Series A  Founded: May 2011

iFood Raises $2m. The São Paulo, Brazil-based online delivery platform facilitates the ordering of food online and through mobile apps for iOS and Android, and operates in all major cities in Brazil. In conjunction with the raise, the company also announced the acquisition of rival food delivery platform Central do Delivery (no financial terms were disclosed), which consolidates most online food ordering in Brazil to a central portal ahead of the World Cup and the Olympics. Beyond the expansion of iFood, the most interesting component to this story involves the growth plan of the strategic investor behind the deal, Movile, the largest mobile content and commerce platform in Latin America and Brazil. According to TechCrunch, “Movile’s investment is part of a broader strategy to work closely with and invest in startup companies across the Americas,” and the company is “negotiating with five other undisclosed startups in seed investments ranging from $100,000 to $3 million.” More specifically, as TechCrunch reports, “the company is angling to back companies developing transportation, e-commerce around fashion, and healthcare and lifestyle applications.”

Announced: 2/06/14  Stage: Venture  Participating Institutional Investors: Movile  Previous Investment: $1.6m Series A, $2.6m Series B  Founded: May 2011

Tapingo Raises $10.5m. The San Francisco-based mobile food ordering platform, which is currently focused on university campuses, enables location-aware discovery for consumers and immediate order fulfillment through operational integration for merchants. The service is live at 25 universities, including New York University, University of Arizona and the University of Southern California, and the company will use the funding to build out its network to more campuses.

Announced: 2/05/14  Stage: Series B  Participating Institutional Investors: Khosla Ventures (lead), Carmel Ventures  Previous Investment: $3.5m Series A  Founded: January 2012

Foodpanda Raises $20m. The Berlin-based food delivery company foodpanda and its affiliate hellofood continue rapid expansion. The new capital will enable foodpanda, which now partners with 22,000 restaurants, to expand its delivery marketplace for restaurants by launching in over 40 new markets. Foodpanda hopes to gain an edge over competitors in the space, like Delivery Hero and Just-Eat, by directing its attention towards Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America, and part of Africa, where launch costs are relatively inexpensive. Expanding in these markets will also give “Rocket Internet a chance to build a massive customer service and logistics network that it can then leverage to grow startups in other verticals, reports TechCrunch.

Announced: 2/04/14  Stage: Venture Round  Participating Institutional Investors: Phenomen Ventures, Investment AB Kinnevik  Previous Investment: Rocket Internet (Accelerator), $20m Series A, $8m Venture Round  Founded: 2012

Noom Raises $7m. The New York-based mobile app developer creates health and wellness apps that provide intelligent nutrition and exercise coaching. Noom plans to use the funds to enhance its products, and expand its audience. Of note, the company was also recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund a study in conjunction with Mt. Sinai Hospital on the impacts of smartphone technology in eating disorder treatment.

Announced: 2/04/14  Stage: Series A  Participating Institutional Investors: RRE Ventures (lead), Harbor Pacific Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Recruit Strategic Partners, Scrum Ventures, TransLink Capital  Previous Investment: Seed, $2.5m Venture Round  Founded: September 2007

Foursquare Raises $15m. The strategic investment and partnership, which gives Microsoft access to Foursquare’s deep location-based tracking data (see “Partnerships” below), will augment Microsoft’s contextually-aware experiences for Bing and its mobile operating system. The investment was added to the $35 million round Foursquare announced in December, which valued the company at about $650 million. In addition to the $15m, Wired reports that with the license agreement, Microsoft will also “make regular payments to Foursquare that the startup characterizes as a ‘substantial addition’ to its revenue stream” which goes “beyond an advertising share.”

Announced: 2/04/14  Valuation: $650m  Stage: Series D (extension)  Participating Investor: Microsoft  Previous Investment: $1.35m Series A, $20m Series B, $50m Series C, $41m Debt, $35m Series D  Founded: March 2009

PARTNERSHIPS

Microsoft Signs an Extensive Licensing Deal with Foursquare to Power Location Context For Windows And Mobile. The multi-year agreement gives Microsoft access to Foursquare’s new tracking system which passively monitors users’ physical movements and preferences among real-world shops, restaurants, and bars. As Wired reports, using this data, the company can personalize search results (and better target ads) on its Bing search engine. Also, as reported by The Verge, Microsoft will use Foursquare location data in Cortana, a personal digital assistant designed to rival Siri and Google Now, for Windows Phones that will launch this spring.

Yahoo Partners with Yelp to Add Listings and Reviews to Improve Local Search Results. Yahoo closed a deep content licensing deal to bring local data into its search experience, both mobile and desktop. Although this will be deeply beneficial to Yahoo – local search apparently makes up about 25% of Yahoo’s search traffic – Yahoo is still playing catch-up, as TechCrunch notes this partnership comes 2 years after Micorsoft’s Bing partnered with Yelp for a co-branded relationship in Bing’s Local search pages. Yahoo also began integrating OpenTable reservations more deeply into its local search results, however re/code reports this is as a result of a redesign on Yahoo’s part versus a new partnership with OpenTable.

Fortune published a thoughtful article entitled, “What Does the Yahoo-Yelp Partnership Mean for Foursquare?” – it is definitely worth a read. Some highlights: It’s not clear why the Yahoo chose Yelp over Foursquare, though a person familiar with Foursquare says the startup walked away because Yahoo was not interested in the strategic investment part of the deal. And the Foursquare-Microsoft data partnership is not exclusive, so Foursquare could theoretically revisit the topic with Yahoo. Still, this partnership seemed like an easy layup for Foursquare.

… and to complement the above reading (the last of my hidden reading list in this section) StreetFight published a great piece arguing that Yelp, Google and Grubhub are all on a collision course as the three firms look to wrangle local consumers who increasingly expect to search, compare and buy in a single keystroke. Another very worthwhile read.

Yelp Partners with Truecaller, a Caller ID and Reverse Phone Directory App. The partnership will allow Truecaller users to automatically verify business numbers that are calling on their mobile phone, see the Yelp ratings, and the pictures people have uploaded of it. Truecaller partnered with Twitter in December in a similar deal.

Square Partners with Whole Foods and Godiva (and other news). Square will offer its iPad cash register, the Square Stand, at several Whole Foods stores, making the grocer the second national retailer after Starbucks. Chocolatier Godiva will use the Square Register during peak times, such as in the run-up during holidays. In other Square news, the company began testing a Square Pickup app, so that users can order ahead from local restaurants. The company also acquired BookFresh, a San Francisco–based scheduling and appointment booking startup for local merchants.

BrightFarms and Giant Food Partner to Deliver Year-Round Local Produce to Giant Stores Throughout the Washington D.C. Metro Area. BrightFarms will supply Giant stores with produce grown at a 100,000-square-foot greenhouse in Washington, D.C., which will be designed, built, and operated by BrightFarms in partnership with the City’s Department of General Services and the Anacostia Economic Development Corporation.

eat24 Food Delivery Platform Partners with Urbanspoon. The new business venture will integrate Eat24’s platform into the Urbanspoon website and mobile app, allowing Urbanspoon users to order menu items, view personal order histories, and make one-click re-orders.

Revel Systems iPad POS Platform Adds Bitcoin Integration. Revel is working with Bitcoin wallet provider Coinbase to provide a hardware/software solution that allows users to seamlessly accept Bitcoin into the current Revel iPad POS. When a customer is paying with Bitcoin, a QR code will pop up on the POS screen of the Revel iPad POS. A customer will then scan this QR code with their smartphone using a Bitcoin wallet app, which completes the transaction.

CircleUp Partners with Virgin America Help Identify New Snacks and Drinks to Serve on Flights. Thus far, Virgin America has selected two CircleUp-funded companies, the French vintner Le Grand Courtage and San Francisco-based granola bar and snack food company 18 Rabbits. Other partners working with CircleUp include consumer goods giants General Mills and Procter & Gamble.

Google Partners with Singleplatform to Display Restaurant Menus in Search Results. This new feature, which started as a small test, displays the full menu directly in the search results, without needing to click through to an additional page. Search Engine Watch notes that the results also have multiple tabs, so if the menu is in sections (e.g., appetizers, main courses), then you can select any of the tabs to view that particular menu section.

Vice Media Partners with Production Company FremantleMedia to Target Millennial Foodies With New Video Channel. Tubefilter reports the channel doesn’t yet have a name or a specific URL, but will likely have its own YouTube home as well as a presence on the main Vice website.

Tastemade Partners with Ryan Seacrest Productions to Develop Food and Lifestyle Programming for Digital Platforms. Ryan Seacrest Productions has already ventured into food programming with the Emmy-winning reality series “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” and re/code also notes that “RSP has become increasingly active in the digital arena, ranging from an investment in a keyboard for the Apple iPhone called Typo to talks with Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer about possible content partnerships.”

Levelup Partners with Foodler, Users Can Now Choose LevelUp to Pay for Takeout. In addition to giving users another way to pay, Levelup provides loyalty incentives to encourage customers to order more delivery.  LevelUp tells the Boston Globe, “It’s the first time LevelUp will be powering online payments, bridging the gap between the real and virtual worlds.”  The partnership is the result of LevelUp’s Developer Platform which allows third parties to add payment and campaign functionality to their apps via a free API/SDK. The Boston Globe also points out that the LevelUp partnership isn’t the first time Foodler is trying a new payments method, as it started accepting bitcoins last year.

IRI (Information Resources Inc.) and Technomic Partner to Create a Joint Service Offering Aimed at Providing a Holistic View of the Food Industry. The partnership will enable customizable, cross-channel analysis, as well as collaboration between manufacturers, retailers and restaurant operators.

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: February 2014 appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Interoperability of data and systems are virtually non-existent when it comes to agriculture. But one company hopes to change that.

On Wednesday, AgSquared, providers of cloud-based farm management software for small farms, announced that it has acquired OATV-backed Local Dirt, an online local food marketplace and sales management tool that connects consumers and wholesalers directly with farmers.

AgSquared has spent the last four years working closely with small farmers – typically mixed vegetable farmers with farms that range from 1/2 an acre to 600 acres of land – to develop planning, management and record keeping software. Today, nearly 6,000 farmers in the US, Canada and 88 other countries are using its platform.

In the beginning, it was difficult to sell farmers on the idea of AgSquared because most were used to keeping records with pen and paper and didn’t really have any interest in digitizing their operations. In fact, co-founders Jeff Froikin-Gordon and Giulia M. Stellari tell me that even when farmers were using the platform, they would still request the ability to print out their schedule so they could bring it out into the field. Now, they say, things have changed dramatically. More farmers are using technology than even two years ago, and all of their farmers and the farmers they meet at conferences have smart phones. And now they are receiving requests for mobile apps that farmers can use in the field.

Now that AgSquared has established credibility with its farmers, it wants to make it easier for farmers to integrate their data with other online services, starting with Local Dirt. While there have been a wave of startups that have developed marketplaces to help farmers sell and market their goods, adoption has been slow because they become yet another place where farmers have to do data entry. As a management tool that already captures harvest data, however, AgSquared could help these startups streamline their data collection and reduce the barriers to entry for farmers.

“With this acquisition, we’re taking a first step in the direction of making the data that our users are collecting about their farms and their harvests, and especially on the production side harvest and sales, and helping them integrate that information into a lot of the online services that now exist,” says Stellari.

For the next year, AgSquared and Local Dirt will operate as separate tools, but AgSquared will focus on building a basic integration so its users can get their harvest into Local Dirt’s product inventory and get their sales data from Local Dirt into AgSquared. Over time, however, AgSquared will integrate those sales management features into one platform. It has no plans to launch a marketplace.

“It’s definitely something we were planning on building ourselves, in fact one of our grants covers the development of some of these features,” says Froikin-Gordon. “The main reason why [we decided to] acquire instead of building [a sales management tool] ourselves right now is that we could do it immediately. It might be another year before we can get those sales management features out the door if we were building them ourselves, but this way we can put those features into our users hands right now. And there is a lot of value in that. Every year makes a big difference to small farms. An unprofitable year for a beginning farmer means they’re going out of business. And so, the more we can help them better understand the drivers of profitability on their farm this year, the better we can support those farms right now.”

In 2015, AgSquared plans to release an API to allow for further integration. They are in talks with potential partners, but are not able to comment on who those companies are at the moment.

Founded in 2005 by Heather Hilleren, Local Dirt is one of the first food tech startups to create an online marketplace for local food and sales management tools for farmers, distributors and retailers. Hillern raised approximately $1 million in angel funding from O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and Peak Ridge Capital’s AgTech Fund, and secured a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The startup also developed Locavore, a mobile application that helps consumers find local food. Hillern has joined AgSquared as an advisor.

AgSquared has secured $750,000 in grants from USDA and the National Science Foundation, as well as an undisclosed amount of angel funding.

The post AgSquared Acquires Local Dirt To Bring Interoperability To Agriculture appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Food+Tech Connect and GRACE Communications Foundation present Hacking Meat, an online conversation exploring how information and technology can be used to hack (or reimagine) a more sustainable, profitable and healthy future for meat.  Join the conversation and share your ideas or product requests in the comments, on Twitter using #hackmeat, Facebook , Tumblr or at the Hack//Meat Silicon Valley happening June 21-23 in Palo Alto.

Guest post by Kent Schoberle, 4505 Meats

Having previously worked in the animation and film industry, I’ve experienced first hand the power that technology can harness. In that industry, the information and tools that were once prohibitively costly and out of common reach became accessible to all, birthing an entirely new class of small, independent producers and artistry. When I think about the role of technology in the future of meat, I think about how it might be utilized to empower a regional network of small-scale farmers, ranchers, butchers, restaurants and home cooks who could embody the change we need to see in our food system.

One of the issues in my region, Northern California, is the lack of access to local processing facilities and distribution channels for small-scale producers to legally sell their meat to end consumers or restaurants. There are strict USDA requirements for doing so and a lack of USDA inspected processing facilities in the immediate area. Thus farmers have to load his or her animals into a trailer, drive them a significant distance, and coordinate all of the logistics post-slaughter, potentially decimating their already thin profit margins. If technology could play a role in facilitating better real-time transparency between the USDA and producer, perhaps USDA inspection could be more flexible and less costly for producers.

One example could be equipment and software that detect disease or undesirable bacteria in a carcass. Farmers and processing professionals could keep track of specific safety data that would help make it safer for consumers to buy animals more directly from farmers. If this level of data and communication existed, it could be leveraged to create more on-farm processing options, as well as to help alleviate extra transportation costs, reduce animal stress and allow for more localized processing options. Currently there is a mobile USDA processing unit in California, but it is costly and not yet feasible for most small-scale farmers.

Technology could also play a role in the detection of farm equipment malfunction and environmental hazard. On pasture-based farms, there is a heavy reliance on portable electric fencing to help control the placement of animals and to protect them from unwanted predators. If a fence is down or there is a break in the line, notification could help direct immediate attention to the issue. Small portable nodes that read electricity levels, monitor temperature, water level and other programmable variables may one day be affordable and commonly available to farmers.

Other examples of technologies that could be beneficial include moisture detection for lack of water on hot days, unwanted moisture in a feed storage area, temperature spikes in animal housing or any number of other small monitoring tasks to help with the unpredictability of raising animals. It is my hope that we can use technology to reduce the bottlenecks between small farms and consumers, particularly on the processing end. But the true value lies with the people and animals behind the process, rather than the convenience of the end product produced.

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. 

___________________________

Kent Schoberle is currently the lead cutter and class instructor at 4505 Meats. He processes whole animals on a regular basis and guides students through the entire process from start to finish. His true passion for good meat was discovered years ago while working as a creature technical director in the animation and film business. Eventually he decided to dedicate himself to the meaty cause, seeking out the best path for an immersive learning experience. He found Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats and has now been with the company three years. He routinely spends days off working on local farms and ranches to continue his educational efforts.

The post Hacking Meat: Bringing Transparency to Processing appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Calling hackers from far and wide! National Day of Civic Hacking is taking place in cities across the nation this weekend (June 1-2). “The event will bring together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs from all over the country to collaboratively create, build, and invent new solutions using publicly-released data, code and technology to solve challenges relevant to our neighborhoods, our cities, our states and our country,” reads the website. Learn about all of  the nation-wide hacking opportunities here. Check out some exciting food tech-related challenges and events below:

Title: Backyard Poultry Farmer
Description: Create a Backyard Poultry Farmer app with the objective of getting individuals and households back into agriculture through backyard chickens
Contributed By:  U.S. Department of Agriculture – USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

Title: Farmers Market Directory
Description: Creation of mobile applications to enhance the Farmers Market experience and make trips easier by using USDA’s Farmers Market Directory
Contributed By: U.S. Department of Agriculture – USDA

Title: Improve Healthcare
Description: HHS proposes 5 diverse projects aimed at improving healthcare: 1) build a common directory of community resources, 2) visualize/explore hospital charges data, 3) create downloadable healthdata.gov catalogue, 4) facilitate home visits that promote healthy families 5) secure survey collection
 Contributed By: Department of Health and Human Services – HHS

Title: EPA Safe Drinking Water App Challenge
Description: Develop an application that helps citizens locate their drinking water system, discover any historical or pending violations, and understand any potential health effects associated with potential violations.
Contributed By: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – EPA

Title: The Hack For Food
Description: Code for Asheville is planning a food hackaton in conjunction with national partners and the Buncombe County Food Policy Council. Members of the tech community and the general community will come together to “hack” the issue of food availability and security.

Title: CityCamp Palo Alto
Description: A free and fun family event with a focus on hands-on activities such as a hackathon and makerspaces; software engineers, makers, artists, speakers, community members, visitors, and City officials will gather to explore a variety of ways to build innovative solutions to support the future of Palo Alto.

Title: ATX Hackathon for Change 2013
Description: The Food Lab is participating in the ATX Hackathon for Change and will be leading a Mapathon as one part of the weekend’s events. By creating a highly granular map of the Austin area that includes both mobile datasets (i.e. food distribution trucks) and fixed data points (i.e. restaurants), the Mapathon will be both innovative and a civic service.

Title: National Day of Civic Hacking- Burlington, Vermont
Description: A group of Vermonters from various professional backgrounds dedicated to the common goal of using technology to solve public problems has come together to hack solutions for “healthy communities.” Challenges presented will help solve problems in the following areas: Arts, Culture and Music, Economic Development, Food Systems, Education & Workforce Technologies, Healthcare Technologies, Clean Energy and Transportation and Emergency Preparedness & Public Health.

Title: Hack for Change- Montgomery County, MD
Description: The Montgomery County event will bring together techies, entrepreneurs, do-gooders, activists and others from across the region to collaborate and envision tools using publicly-released data. County leaders will pitch a variety of ideas to participants for their consideration. Topics may include: water quality apps, food recovery tools, transit data visualizations, and more.

The post Join National Day of Civic Hacking! appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Beef Stakes, an art project by ITP student Sarah Hallacher, offers a sensory examination of 2011 beef production and consumption data from the top 4 U.S. producing states: Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Texas. The data comes from  beefusa.org and Cornell’s library of USDA data.

The  size of each clay steak represents the amount of beef produced in the state of origin, using 1 inch per every billion pounds.  “The correct execution would be to map the amount of production in lbs to the square mileage of the state, then to the size of the 'state steak,'” writes Hallcher on her blog. “My current mapping process left Texas in the dust, when in reality it produces “only” about 2.5 billion lbs less than the top-producer, Nebraska.”

The price tags also offer up some meaty data about each state: a barcode bar graph of monthly production quantities, total weight of beef produced, cost of beef production (per pound & total) to produce the beef, the 2011 state population and the amount of beef each citizen would have to consume annually to consume total production in-state.

While incredibly creative, as well as aesthetically appealing and thought-provoking, for me the question remains: is this the most useful data to use when telling the story of beef production? What data is missing? What do these numbers mean?

“I would love to expand my project to discuss beef imports/exports between the U.S. and the rest of the world,” Hallacher writes in a blog post. “I’m also fascinated in the amount of waste involved in beef production; the oil used to transport, the methane produced by corn-fed cows, the actual amount of meat we consume vs. produce, etc.”

For me, comparison data would help put these numbers and those already included on the label in context. I'd also like to see data on prices paid to producers, farm employment and farm closures, and number of recalls annually. This data could help illustrate the impacts of consolidation, and how we support further consolidation with our dollars.

What data would you like to see included in Hallacher's Beef Stakes? What story would you like to tell?

The post Beef Stakes Visualizes 2011 US Beef Production & Consumption Data appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Last week, social recipe curation website Punchfork announced it had been acquired by Pinterest, and that it will soon shut down its website, API and mobile apps. CEO Jeff Miller will join Pinterest's engineering team to help improve Pinterest's discovery. Pinterest is not disclosing the acquisition price.

While most have focused on what this means for Pinterest, I'd like to focus on Punchfork and the lessons that other recipe startups can learn from Miller's experience.

Recipe startup business models are tricky. Many (most) go the advertising route, but Punchfork decided to try its hand at the API subscription model (read our in depth interview here). The startup developed an API that gives developers direct access to its recipe database. With this access, developers are able to integrate recipes into their own website or mobile app and, for example, perform a diet classification of any list of ingredients. It allows bloggers or publishers to syndicate their recipes directly into Punchfork's database and, using Punchfork's analytics tools, track their popularity. Below is a screen shot of Punchfork's offering and pricing plan.

Evernote Food is, perhaps, Punchfork's most publicized user, using the API to power its Explore Recipes feature on Evernote Food. Other users include DuckDuckGo, AnyList, Pulse, Good Genius, CookItForUS and FastFood. Miller would not comment on the number of paying API users he has, but he admits that it's not enough to make it a scalable business. While the Punchfork API might be scalable from an operational standpoint Miller “never saw evidence that there is a particularly large market of strictly recipe API users out there. Instead it seems to be a small-to-medium market,” he told me by email.

His greatest challenge with getting people to pay for access to the API is the lack of available data, like nutriti

on and preparation steps, to support the needs of potential users.

He also experimented with coupons and targeted offers without much success because of Punchfork's lack of scale. “The profits on coupons and targeted offers are naturally low, so you need huge volume, to a degree that I underestimated,” Miller explained. “Another problem was that there is no “AdWords for Ingredients” API out there that lets you match a list of ingredients with relevant ad inventory. To build one ourselves would have been another huge undertaking, although I considered it for a while before reality set in :).” Ultimately, Yummly beat Miller to the punch on that one.

In the end, however, focusing on the API business model may ultimately have paid off for Miller, pushing him to develop a robust technology that can also be used in other verticals. Adweek has some interesting predications about how Pinterest may want to integrate Punchfork's technology:

“Yet a more robust recipe offering may be small-minded when considering the larger potential Punchfork brings with it. Developers and marketers have been awaiting developer tools from Pinterest that would let them plug into the platform to do things like accurately measure Pinterest’s impact on sales and brand awareness, build apps that pull pins and pinboards as content or run ads targeted according to Pinterest data. Pinterest has kept quiet on any such plans, leading to speculation that any developer tools are way down the road if even on Pinterest’s roadmap. However, Punchfork has already built a developer tool, the Punchfork API, that lets developers pull recipes from Punchfork and display them on their sites or in their apps. That API can stream a real-time recipe feed or sift Punchfork’s content for specific categories like ingredient or publisher. It also lets bloggers or publishers stream their recipes directly into Punchfork and track how they perform; imagine that ported to Pinterest as a way for brands to auto-post products as pins and measure user response.

Pinterest may not want to open up its platform to the point that its content gets aggregated and accessed externally through apps like Flipboard, following the example set by Twitter over the summer, but it’ll likely want to find a way to help brands promote their Pinterest content on their own sites or apps and vice versa. Punchfork’s technology could help them realize that goal.”

A brief note of thanks to Miller for being so candid with me. Hopefully, his experience will prove valuable for some of you.

Are you working on a recipe startup? What innovative business models are you testing?

The post Lessons From Punchfork's API Business Model & Acquisition by Pinterest appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

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. 

The post Does Mobile Technology Support Weight Loss and Behavior Change? appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

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