Dive Brief:
- Wonder, which operates 11 delivery-focused restaurants in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, has raised $700 million in capital, founder, chairman and CEO Marc Lore wrote Tuesday in a LinkedIn post.
- The company’s latest funding includes investments from existing shareholders NEA, GV, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Forerunner, Alpine, Harmony and Watar Partners. Lore said he also invested $100 million. New investors include Dragoneer, Jefferies, Red & Blue Ventures, CAZ Investments, Kuvare Insurance and Fubon Ventures.
- Wonder started as a food truck business preparing and delivering food in front of customers’ homes, but transitioned to a food hall business in early 2023. The new funding will go toward expansion, research and development, Lore said, and help it reach 35 units by the end of 2024 and 90 by the end of 2025.
Dive Insight:
Wonder has reached unit-level profitability, Lore wrote in the LinkedIn post. The company now serves all 30 of its restaurant brand concepts from one location with a 30-minute average order-to-eat time, he said, adding that Wonder maintains customer satisfaction with a 60+ Net Promoter Score.
The company has made several development changes of late. Within the past 12 months, Wonder acquired Blue Apron, opened its first location inside a Pennsylvania Walmart and created over 350 new menu items within its 30 concepts, Lore said. Wonder will open two more Walmart locations this year in New Jersey. It has also partnered with various chefs like Marcus Samuelsson and José Andrés to expand its “fast fine” restaurants.
“We will continue driving culinary innovation by aggressively investing in research and development, including faster cook times, software enhancements, new menu items, new chefs and iconic restaurant partnerships,” Lore said. “Customers love features like multi-restaurant ordering and we’ll have many exciting new products and partnerships to talk about soon.”
Lore added that Wonder will also work on various technologies to bolster unit-level economics, like back-end tech to improve food waste and better kitchen designs that improve throughput and consistency. The company also will enhance its delivery network and ensure that it has enough couriers to deliver food in a timely fashion.
Wonder’s expansion plans come as other delivery-centric restaurant startups have shuttered operations. Kitchen United, which was seen as an pioneer in the ghost kitchen space, sold its ghost kitchen intellectual property to Sam Nazarian last week. Nazarian, who previously acquired Nextbite’s virtual brand business, combined all of his virtual brand and ghost kitchen businesses under the moniker of Everybody Eats.
Wonder said its tight delivery radii, about six minutes in urban markets and 10 minutes for suburban areas, and its focus on quality dishes will help it differentiate from concepts that have failed in the space, Nation’s Restaurant News reported. The company also owns all of its 30 brands and uses a vertically integrated model, where it oversees every step of the process from cooking to delivery.
