UK – Food-delivery company Wonder Group has gotten a cash infusion from Nestle, as the startup looks to sell high-tech kitchen equipment and prepared ingredients to businesses such as hotels, hospitals, and sports arenas.
Speaking to Just Food A Nestlé spokesperson confirmed the deal but declined to reveal transaction details.
“This strategic partnership will allow us to bring an innovative and new-to-market solution to our customers as they look for ways to scale their operations. It can help them improve food quality, drive labor efficiencies, and open up additional revenue streams,” the spokesman noted.
However, CNBC said the deal included a US$100 million investment from Nestle, along with a strategic partnership.
According to the deal, Nestlé will be making pizza and pasta tailored for Wonder’s kitchen equipment, along with selling the kitchen equipment to clients.
Melissa Henshaw, the senior vice president for Nestlé’s Solutions Lab, told CNBC:
“With our partnership with Wonder, there’s this opportunity to help operators across multiple out-of-home segments to be able to improve their food quality, have consistency, and actually open up some additional revenue streams that have been pretty challenged post-pandemic.”
The deal follows Nestlé’s recent strategic decision to combine its two food service businesses – Nestlé Professional and Solutions Lab – into one business to capitalize on the recovery in the out-of-home channel.
The funding could get Wonder a step closer to its ambitions of making it easier, faster, and cheaper for busy families to have high-quality meals at home.
The startup, which was valued at about US$3.5 billion when it closed a US$350 million funding round in June, was founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur and former Walmart e-commerce chief Marc Lore.
Wonder recently struck a deal to acquire meal-kit company Blue Apron for US$103 million. It has also developed kitchen equipment that simplifies and speeds up cooking restaurant-quality food.
Blue Apron transferred its listing from the New York Stock Exchange in September to the Nasdaq bourse. The company, founded in 2012, released its second-quarter results in August for the period to 30 June, showing net losses widened to US$61.9m, from a US$23.3m loss in the corresponding three months a year earlier.
Last year, Nestlé spun off its Freshly meal-kit e-commerce delivery business into a joint venture with private-equity firm L Catterton.
Prior to that, the food and drinks major established its position in e-commerce with the acquisition of UK recipe-kit company SimplyCook.
