Online Food Ordering Platform, EatStreet, Raises $15 Million

EatStreet, an online food ordering platform, announced that it raised $15 million in a Series C investment co-led by local VC 4490 Ventures and Lumia Capital, according to TechCrunch.  

Among countless other on-demand food ordering and delivery services, EatStreet differentiates itself by targeting smaller towns and focusing only on ordering, not delivering. EatStreet leaves delivery to restaurants or local delivery providers as their focus markets are more spread out.

Matt Howard, CEO of EatStreet, says, "The density in the cities where we operate is not the same as in tier-one markets, where you can batch orders together, so it's harder to promote delivery. We're not a logistics company. We know our strong suit is to drive orders to our restaurants."

EatStreet provides a platform to restaurants that use it free of charge. It makes revenue by charging restaurants a 12 percent fee on all orders and by selling ads. Restaurants are then paid their 88 percent share of all revenues processed through EatStreet's apps.

This focus on software rather than logistics, TechCrunch speculates, could be the reason behind its large successes on a relatively small amount of funding. Founded in 2010 by three college students, EatStreet now works with 15,000 restaurants across 250 cities. Howard tells TechCrunch that the company has seen triple-digit revenue growth over the last several years.

Lumia partner Martin Gedalin says, "Not being about logistics makes EatStreet a more pure marketplace and allows them and their margin profile to look considerably different. We like that focus. It's still to be proven how some of those other models will work out."