Delivery-centric food hall concept Wonder has raised $700 million to help scale its ambitious business model.
The fundraise, announced Tuesday on LinkedIn by founder and CEO Marc Lore, includes $100 million from Lore himself as well as contributions from new and existing investors. Wonder has now raised $1.5 billion in equity to date.
That mountain of capital has helped Wonder go from what Lore called a “cold start” in January 2023 to a chain of 11 locations in three states today. Each location offers food from up to 30 restaurant menus that are available for delivery, pickup or dine-in. Food is prepped at a central commissary and finished in stores using just a few pieces of equipment.
Wonder plans to use the latest financing to expand to 35 locations by the end of this year and 90 by the end of 2025, all in the Northeast.
It will also invest in faster cook times, new menu items and restaurant brands, technology that reduces food waste, a new kitchen design with better throughput and consistency, and an enhanced delivery network that will ensure that couriers and orders “never wait,” Lore said.
The funding caps a whirlwind year for Wonder that also included the acquisition of meal kit company Blue Apron, the launch of a B2B division in partnership with Nestle and a deal with Walmart to open as many as four locations in the retailer’s stores.
[For more on Wonder, check out our in-depth profile: Marc Lore's Wonder is reinventing the meal.]
Lore also said Tuesday that Wonder had met three goals he set out for the company: delivering all 30 of its menus from one location in an average of under 30 minutes; reaching a Net Promoter Score of 60 or more; and becoming profitable at the unit level.
After proving that the business model works, Lore said, it is now time to scale it.
The entrepreneur has made a name for himself scaling startups like Diapers.com and Jet.com, which he sold to Amazon and Walmart, respectively. He then became CEO of Walmart’s ecommerce business before leaving to lead Wonder, which he has called his biggest idea yet.
The startup originally used vans with kitchens inside to cook meals in customers’ driveways. After that model became unwieldy, Wonder shifted to brick-and-mortar locations. It uses a vertically integrated model that keeps virtually every part of the business in-house, from its tech stack to its restaurant brands and delivery drivers.
Contributors to Wonder's latest fundraise included existing investors NEA, GV, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Forerunner, Alpine, Harmony and Watar Partners; new investors Dragoneer, Jefferies, Red & Blue Ventures, CAZ Investments, Kuvare Insurance and Fubon Ventures; and a strategic investment from existing investor Amex Ventures.
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