Evolv Ventures invests in food delivery startup GrubMarket

Evolv Ventures, a $100m venture fund backed by US food giant Kraft Heinz, has made its first investment in GrubMarket, a platform that distributes to the wholesale food market.

Financial details of the investment have not been disclosed.

Evolve is part of a group that invested $25m in GrubMarket’s oversubscribed C1 round of funding.

Evolv Ventures general partner Steve Sanger said: “GrubMarket plans to grow its presence and product offerings through both geographic and product expansion. Evolv Ventures is pleased to support its innovative founders.”

Based in San Francisco, GrubMarket is a platform that sources local food directly from producers and delivers it directly to businesses and consumers.

GrubMarket works with smaller farms and other suppliers to sell and deliver their items through an online store, both to restaurants or stores and consumer customers.

At present, GrubMarket is operating on a $150m annual run rate, compared to $100m when the company raised $32m nine months ago.

GrubMarket CEO and founder Mike Xu said: “We have a few more major acquisitions to close within the next a couple months.”

Last October, Kraft Heinz launched Evolv Ventures to focus on investing in emerging technology companies that have the potential to transform the food industry.

For this venture fund, Kraft Heinz announced an investment of nearly $100m and appointed venture investor Bill Pescatello to lead it.

Prior to the venture fund launch, Kraft Heinz established a platform dubbed Springboard in March 2018 to develop and accelerate the growth of promising brands within the food and beverage segment.