London-based food start-up City Pantry today announces it has closed a £4m Series A funding round, led by Octopus Investments with participation from existing investors and Newable Private Investing.
The funds will be used to continue the company’s triple-digit growth in London whilst also beginning expansion to new markets, targeting cities across the UK over the next 18 months.
The company, which was founded by Stuart Sunderland in 2013, is transforming the way employees eat by bringing food from exciting local caterers and restaurants direct to offices, covering events, meetings, and team meals.
It already serves over 20,000 meals every week to the employees of more than 500 companies, including Google, Amazon, PayPal, Slack, Spotify and Unilever. Customers use the City Pantry platform to choose from 300 of London’s most popular restaurants and caterers.
Stuart Sunderland, founder and CEO of City Pantry, said: “While we’ve all seen the phenomenal growth of online food delivery in B2C over the past few years, food to businesses lags significantly behind; legacy relationships with caterers and the unique pressures of ordering for larger groups make innovation and progress slower.
“However we’ve reached a tipping point as we have so much more easy access to incredible food in our everyday lives, we now expect that within our professional lives and companies that care about the quality and variety of what is served have an advantage. With a growing chasm between what's available in London's restaurants and what we are offered at work, City Pantry bridges the gap with on-trend, high-quality food that is easy to order and reliably delivered.”
The company has tapped into a growing demand from employees for greater workplace wellbeing; and for employers to offer more than just a good salary.
Grant Paul-Florence, Head of Intermediate Capital at Octopus Investments, City Pantry’s lead investor, said: “City Pantry is one of the hottest start-ups in this space, and the team has ambitious plans to revolutionise the way people eat at work. It’s uniquely placed to satisfy the growing appetite for high quality, hassle-free workplace meals, which organisations are increasingly demanding as they work to build an attractive company culture.”
Anthony Clarke, Managing Director of Newable Private Investing, said, “City Pantry takes an innovative approach to boosting employee morale and productivity by encouraging teams to eat together. We’re delighted to participate in this round."
Matt Truman, CEO and Co-Founder, True, said “In a short space of time, City Pantry has grown from a start-up within our growth fund’s innovation Hub, to a business delivering phenomenal growth. As the company’s first institutional investor, it was clear this was a business set to successfully disrupt an established industry through a well-defined future-facing business strategy and a great team, led by Stuart. City Pantry has huge potential for scale.”
