Online ordering platform EatStreet, started by Wisconsin graduates, receives $2m in a series A round from new and existing backers.
EatStreet, a US-based start-up run by University of Wisconsin graduates, has raised a $2m series A led by angel investors Cornerstone Opportunity Partners.
The round was joined in participation by venture firms Independence Equity and Great Oaks VC, and also gener8tor. The Wisconsin-based accelerator previously invested $150k in EatStreet, then known as UConnect, back in 2011.
Starting as a project in 2009, the firm immediately found 100 restaurants in Madison, Wisconsin. Since then, EatStreet serves over 1,000 restaurants in 20 US cities. As opposed to just having an online ordering platform, EatStreet looks to give its partners a whole package.
“EatStreet’s main goal is to give restaurants websites, their own mobile apps, their own mobile websites, their own Facebook ordering – we’re giving them everything they need for online ordering…we push more of a platform approach,” EatStreet chief executive officer Matt Howard explained.
The start-up is taking on more established names in online ordering, such as GrubHub or Seamless. However, EatStreet plans to target restaurants in smaller cities to stimulate growth.
Matt Howard told news provider TechCrunch: “I’m not going into Chicago, New York or L.A. – those markets are very much a first-mover advantage. The markets we’re targeting are those 200,000 to 500,000 people markets where restaurants have no idea what they’re doing, and they don’t want to do it themselves. They want someone else to do it for them because they don’t have the time, money or resources to make it happen.”
