ChocoA company that aims to build a more sustainable food system for restaurants and suppliers, has brought in another major funding round — this time $111 million in a Series B2 round — to boost the value of its food chain. company to $1.2 billion.
The new investment, an internal round led by G Squared alongside Insight Partners, comes just six months after being based in Berlin Choco made $100 million in a Series B . roundled by Left Lane Capital, gave the company an after-market valuation of $600 million.
If you follow us, we’ve covered several Choco funding rounds over the years, including a $63.7 million Series A raised in two different phases, a $33.5 million round in 2019 and a $30.2 million round in 2020 — at a $230 million valuation — bringing its total funding to $282.5 million since the company was founded in 2018.
The company is pursuing a The $6 trillion food service industry traditionally do business through spreadsheets or pen and paper. It has developed software that digitizes ordering, supply chain and communication for suppliers and restaurants to take back some of that time.
“We were lucky with our growth and fortunate in a very large space where we were able to grow quickly without much hindrance,” Choco CEO Daniel Khachab told TechCrunch. . “When our investors provided more capital, we said, ‘let’s get going’ so we could get up to speed, invest in our product, customer service, and train our team. “
Choco also collects data in real time so suppliers can more accurately balance supply and demand. less food is wasted before reaching the consumer. Its goal is to “completely digitize the global wholesale food market by 2026 instead of not wasting food”.
The company is not alone in its search for food waste. Example: grocery app Food flash raised $12.3 million to tackle retail food waste, and Full harvest raised $23 million to find the endpoint for the imperfect product.
Meanwhile, Choco is active in the US, Germany, France, Spain, Austria and Belgium, and has experienced 350% growth in users over the past year. And as of February, the total value of goods traded through Choco exceeded $1.2 billion and it is working with about 15,000 restaurant customers and 16,000 from the supply side.
Khachab intends to use the new capital to develop products and technologies, support the company’s growth in the US and Europe, and expand into other markets. He also plans to increase the company’s headcount from 400 currently to 600 to 700 by the end of the year.
Some of the new features in the beta include financial services capabilities where Choco will put providers at risk by acting as a collection agency for them to get paid within 24 hours. , while allowing restaurants more time to pay.
“We want to cover the entire US and European food systems,” added Khachab. “The main focus over the next 36 months will be on building value-based software for vendors, who are dealing with pressure on margins and pricing, and it’s difficult for them to collect money. They will become our main customers at this point. ”
