Direct-to-consumer services have taken off since the onset of the pandemic. San Francisco-based company GrubMarket is the latest business in that category to announce a fresh investment following a year of growth.
The farm-to-table food delivery platform announced Monday that it added an additional $25 million to its oversubscribed Series E round led by BlackRock. The round was initially announced as a $120 million investment back in September and solidifies GrubMarket’s status as a unicorn with a valuation exceeding $1 billion.
The latest investment couldn’t have come at a better time. GrubMarket’s revenues are up more than 300 percent over last year and the company says it has managed to reach a $1 billion annualized run-rate.
In addition to operating as an HR management platform for wholesalers and distributors, GrubMarket also handles tasks like inventory management, pricing and customer relations. The company’s primary focus though, is to directly link farmers with the consumers, restaurants and grocery stores who buy their products.
“I’m focused on the food supply chain, operators in the food supply chain business most of the time don’t have any access to software and e-commerce technology,” Mike Xu, CEO of GrubMarket, said in a statement. “But we are not just a lightweight online ordering system, we do a lot of heavyweight lifting.”
Over the last 12 months, GrubMarket’s software offering has been the most successful segment of the business, delivering over 3,500 percent of growth for the company. Given the sheer amount of good financial news, it shouldn’t come as a shock that GrubMarket has achieved profitability, according to the company.
“Delivering ultra-high growth remains the priority for all of our businesses and geographies,” Xu continued. “Moreover, we will continue to operate a sustainable business.”
Over the course of this year, GrubMarket has expanded its market reach to include 14 new states across the U.S. and Canada. All told, the company operates over 40 delivery warehouses across North America and plans to open more across several major metro areas in the coming year.
GrubMarket will use the additional capital to expand its platform’s technological capabilities as well as the size of its team. The platform also has its sights set on acquisitions as it continues to scale. Five positions are currently up for grabs across the company’s engineering, sales and marketing teams.
All told, GrubMarket has raised $327.1 million in venture capital financing to date, according to Crunchbase data.
Additional investors Liberty Street Funds, Japan Post Capital and Walleye Capital participated in the round, among others.
