Report: Food delivery startup Wonder is valued at $3.5 billion after $350 million funding round
Wonder Distribution LLC, a new food delivery startup led by prominent e-commerce entrepreneur Marc Lore, has reportedly raised $350 million in funding at a valuation of $3.5 billion.
The investment was reported by the Wall Street Journal today. Wonder reportedly raised funding last month from a consortium led by Bain Capital Ventures. The startup is also backed by a number of other big tech investors, including Accel, New Enterprise Associates, General Catalyst, and Forerunner Ventures.
Wonder operates a network of truck-based restaurants from which consumers can order food through a mobile app. Wonder Trucks travel close to the user’s home and prepare an order there to ensure new deliveries. Since January, the startup would have operated 60 restaurants in four New Jersey cities.
Wonder is led by the General Manager Marc Lore, who until last year held the same position in the e-commerce division of Walmart Inc. Lore previously co-founded Jet.com, an online retailer that Walmart bought in 2016 for $3.3 billion. . The executive previously founded another e-commerce company called Quidsi Inc. which was acquired by Amazon.com Inc. in 2010.
The Journal reported today that the startup’s service is available to approximately 132,000 homes in New Jersey. The startup is expected to expand to other parts of New Jersey this year, and long-term hopes to make its service available nationwide by 2035.
Along with its network of truck-based restaurants, Wonder operates a service called Envoy that allows users to order food from local restaurants. Envoy would account for around a quarter of the startup’s revenue.
Including the $350 million investment announced today, Wonder has raised approximately $900 million in debt and equity financing since launch. The startup is said to have spent “hundreds of millions of dollars” so far to optimize recipes and reduce the time it takes to prep food in its trucks. In the future, the startup hopes to further increase chef productivity by redesigning its restaurant’s kitchen layout and using software to automatically identify the most efficient way to prepare a meal.
Wonder also plans to expand into new market segments. The startup hopes to eventually offer ready-to-heat meals and meal prep kits alongside existing food delivery options available in its app.
Food delivery startups have raised a significant amount of funding in recent quarters. Quickcommerce Ltd., a fast grocery delivery provider that does business as Zapp, firm a $200 million funding round in January. Startup Gopuff, which is competing in the same segment, earlier raised a $1 billion funding round that valued it at $15 billion.