Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Backed With $10 Million, Eat Club Has Delivered 1.5 Million Meals

Eat Club’s big appeal is that employees can choose from 15 different options per day using its website or mobile app.

Eat Club is announcing today that it has expanded to Los Angeles, having delivered more than 1.5 million meals to 2,000 offices.

It’s also disclosing a $10 million Series B funding round led by Trinity Ventures that closed last year.

“A couple years ago, [investors] looked at this and said, ‘This is messy. I want a mobile game business where a couple developers in a garage in Mountain View can push it to the app store,’” said Eat Club CEO Frank Han at his office in Palo Alto.

Now, Han said, “Every meal we sell generates positive contribution and [the] path to profitability is really clear. Our business is one that won’t just disappear.”

We were talking over lunch from Eat Club, of course. I had the tempeh and green beans, Han had the veal frikadelle. He made the better choice, I think.

Eat Club’s big appeal is that employees can choose from 15 different options on any given day using its website or mobile app.

The company makes some of its meals in-house and coordinates with restaurants for others. It has kitchens in San Francisco, Santa Clara and now Los Angeles.

As opposed to many consumer-focused food delivery apps, Eat Club has volume on its side. The company employs 150 part-time drivers who can deliver 40 or more meals per hour.

Customers can choose to fully or partially subsidize the meal, or to make their own employees pay. Businesses with 25 to 500 employees are the sweet spot, said Han. “Many hundreds” of companies use Eat Club on an active basis.

The new funding brings Eat Club to $16.5 million raised in total since being founded in 2010.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Technology
The case for AI realismThe case for AI realism
Technology

AI isn’t going to be the end of the world — no matter what this documentary sometimes argues.

By Shayna Korol
Politics
OpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agendaOpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agenda
Politics

The AI company released a set of highly progressive policy ideas. There’s just one small problem.

By Eric Levitz
Future Perfect
Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.
Future Perfect

Protecting astronauts in space — and maybe even Mars — will help transform health on Earth.

By Shayna Korol
Podcasts
The importance of space toilets, explainedThe importance of space toilets, explained
Podcast
Podcasts

Houston, we have a plumbing problem.

By Peter Balonon-Rosen and Sean Rameswaram
Technology
What happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputerWhat happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputer
Technology

How they’re using AI at the lab that created the atom bomb.

By Joshua Keating
Future Perfect
Humanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious missionHumanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious mission
Future Perfect

Space barons like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk don’t seem religious. But their quest to colonize outer space is.

By Sigal Samuel