18 San Francisco Bay Area Food Companies You Should Know

Written by Alyssa Schroer
Published on Nov. 12, 2024

Food, it's both a necessity and a pleasure in life. Because of this rare intersection, food is a constant recipient of innovation. Companies constantly tweak their operations processes to enhance the way we grow, harvest, distribute, deliver, cook and eat our food. The San Francisco Bay Area is home to many innovative food companies providing new and helpful services.

Top Food Companies in the Bay Area

  • kea
  • DoorDash
  • Instacart
  • Good Eggs
  • Chewse
  • Imperfect Foods
  • Postmates

Whether its sustainable new food products or on-demand delivery, we all gotta eat and these San Francisco-based food companies help us do just that.

 

Founded: 2018

What they do: Kea is a groundbreaking platform for use by the restaurant industry, allowing teams of all sizes to take advantage of AI capabilities and human intelligence for more fulfilling customer experiences. The platform’s AI takes customer orders and is able to provide upsell opportunities while human specialists process the information for accuracy and coach the AI to increase capabilities.

 

Founded: 2007

What they do: Granular provides software solutions for the growers behind the food industry, allowing them to better understand their operations from the ground up. The company's tools provide growers with insights for better seasonal planning, effective day-to-day management capabilities and powerful data science solutions for measuring agronomy metrics, ultimately leading to better efficiency and profitability.

 

Founded: 2011

What they do: Postmates is a delivery service for a wide range of goods. Whether its groceries, takeout, drinks or that must-have item from Target, Postmates provides on-demand delivery and logistical solutions for web and mobile users.

 

Founded: 2012

What they do: Instacart is a grocery delivery service that shops at local stores and delivers items in as little as one hour. Instacart enables users to pick out their entire grocery list at the local store of their choosing and have them at their door before dinner time.

 

Founded: 2011

What they do: Good Eggs is an organic grocery delivery service operating in the Bay Area. Accessible via mobile app, the service requires no subscription and even offers same-day delivery. In addition to fresh, organic items, Good Eggs also delivers wine, beer, dinner kits and more.

 

Founded: 2013

What they do: DoorDash is a food-delivery service providing wide selections of meals from local partner restaurants. The on-demand delivery service not only brings favorite foods to users, but also helps restaurants and businesses widen their reach and gain more visibility.

 

Founded: 2011

What they do: Chewse is a catering company offering workplaces customized family-style meal options. Whether it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner, Chewse sets up, cleans up and sources its meals from local hand-picked restaurants.

 

Founded: 2014

What they do: Cheetah is a food supplier for restaurants, providing a simpler process for ingredient ordering and delivery. The Cheetah app provides restaurants with access to invoices, customizable order guides, access to previous orders and real-time delivery updates.

 

Founded: 2015

What they do: Full Harvest provides a B2B marketplace where food and beverage companies can connect with farms to buy surplus or imperfect produce. Full Harvest’s mission is to encourage sustainability and stop the waste of 20 billion pounds of food per year.

 

Founded: 2015

What they do: Imperfect Foods is working to reduce food waste by offering imperfect produce, staple pantry items and dairy products. To date, the company has saved over 80 million pounds of food, served 200,000 customers and now operates in 25 cities.

 

Founded: 2018

What they do: New Culture makes traditional cow byproducts without the cow. For a variety of reasons like dairy allergies, animal welfare, climate change and water usage, New Culture is creating a sustainable substitute for a food group used around the world.

 

Founded: 2015

What they do: New Wave Foods is in the business of sustainable seafood. The company is producing plant-based shrimp that is made from seaweed and various other natural ingredients.

 

Founded: 2017

What they do: Pod Foods is a food distribution company creating an easier environment for small or local brands to flourish in a mass-market food system. Pod Foods offers distribution solutions that help brands grow, help stores stock more popular local items and a variety of other operational solutions.

 

Founded: 2013

What they do: SideChef is a mobile app that acts as a virtual kitchen assistant offering thousands of easy recipes and other cooking solutions. SideChef offers guided cooking, step-by-step photos, how-to videos, meal planners, shopping lists and more.

 

Founded: 2015

What they do: Vinebox is a wine-tasting service sending users boxes of 9 new wines annually or quarterly. Vinebox’s wines are hand-picked from the best wine regions around the world and enables users to accrue credits to stock up on full bottles of their favorites.

 

Founded: 2010

What they do: Vivino is an online marketplace and community for wine drinkers and enthusiasts. Vivino also offers an app that features label recognition and enables community members to discover and rate over 500,000 wine selections.

 

Founded: 2009

What they do: ZeroCater is customized catering for workplaces. Whether it’s breakfast, lunch or catering for a corporate event, ZeroCater learns about each company’s preferences, needs and offers custom menu options. After meals, employees can submit feedback to improve upon every dining experience.

 

 

Founded: 2015

What they do: Crafty provides businesses of all sizes with food and beverage solutions for their employees. Client companies can order custom snack, pantry and meal programs that hope to optimize their budgets, waste reduction and eco-friendly choices, which include reusable containers and bulk dispensers. The company has an office and distribution warehouse located in the Bay Area. 

 

This article was originally published in 2019. Ana Gore contributed reporting to this story.

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