On Our Radar: Deals we are paying attention to for their impact on industry.
GrubMarket, a San-Francisco based farm-to-table food delivery service for businesses and consumers, has raised a $25 million Series C1 round to invest in technology and acquisitions as it eyes a potential IPO as early as this year, TechCrunch reports.
The startup still has limited footprint in the U.S., and the latest round will enable the company to “grow its presence and product offerings through both geographic and product expansion,” according to Steve Sanger, general partner of Evolv Venture, Kraft Heinz’ $100 million fund. This is the first investment in GrubMarket for Evolv.
WI Harper Group and Digital Garage led the oversubscribed round, which brings the total funding to date to $89 million. University Growth Fund, Arancia International Inc, CentreGold Capital and several other investors also backed GrubMarket in the round, raised at a post-money valuation of approximately $255 million, TechCrunch noted.
Founded by Mike Xu, GrubMarket sources organic foods and produce from local farmers and wholesalers and brings them directly to businesses and consumers. Xu declined to comment on the company’s valuation, but said GrubMarket continues to be profitable with an annual rate of $150 million versus $100 million when it raised $32 million last year, TechCrunch reported.
GrabMarket, which sells its own software as a service platform to help other industry vendors manage supply chain and customer relationships, also plans to acquire more business-to-business competitors as it looks to bump up valuation ahead of a potential IPO.
“We have a few more major acquisitions to close within the next a couple months,” Xu said.
And the company is already looking Xu noted that having the Japanese holding company Digital Garage in the funding round may help GrubMarket expand into Asia.
Anastasia Ustinova is a freelance business writer based in Seattle with more than 10 years of experience reporting around the world. Her stories were featured in Bloomberg News, Businessweek, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Houston Chronicle.
