| Industry | Catering |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2011 |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts [1] |
| Website | www |
ezCater is a Boston-based company that connects businesses with restaurants and caterers through an online marketplace. It was co-founded by Stefania Mallett, CEO, and Briscoe Rodgers, Chief Strategy Officer, in 2007. [2] [3] [4] [5]
With its online platform, ezCater connects corporate catering orderers and sales representatives with nearby restaurants and caterers. [6] [7] [3]
It allows companies to review menus from restaurants and then place an order for meetings or company events. [7] [8] Restaurants are required to have the appropriate catering menus and web presence to join the platform. [9] [6] [10] ezCater has over 75,000 restaurants and caterers signed up on its platform [11] [12] and its catering management software helps caterers manage orders and deliveries. [13] [14]
The website also stores receipts and order histories, and gives companies the ability to let others order food for clients and events with set maximum amounts and tipping policies. [7] [15] Once an order is placed, ezCater tracks it to be sure there are no issues. [13]
In 2011, Mallett and Rodgers raised $2.7 million in Series A investment. [2] Seven years later, in 2018, the company raised $100 million. [3] That funding round was led by Wellington Management Company, with existing investors such as ICONIQ Capital and Insight Venture Partners participating as well. [13] [6] This brought ezCater’s total funding to $170 million with a valuation of $700 million. [6] [13]
In 2017, ezCater partnered with JLL to provide meals to Feeding America. [16] [17] [18] They've provided over a million meals to date. [19]
In 2019, ezCater acquired Monkey Group, a cloud platform for take-out, delivery, and catering. [2] [20] That same year, a $150 million Series D-1 funding round saw ezCater reach a $1.25 billion valuation. [2] [9]
In April 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered corporate offices across the country, ezCater laid off over 400 staff across its Boston, Denver, Paris, and Vancouver offices. [21]
During the pandemic in 2020, ezCater launched its app and website, Relish by ezCater, which allows workers to place food orders from local restaurants. [22] [23] [24] The individually-packaged meals arrive in a designated space at a designated time to cut down on the number of delivery people entering a business. [25] [22]
In December 2020, ezCater partnered with Subway to offer a new online catering platform. [26] [27]
In July 2021, ezCater launched its first-ever TV commercials, advocating for food as an incentive to motivate remote workers to return to the on-site office environment after the pandemic. [28] [29]
In December 2021, ezCater announced a successful $100M Series D-2 funding round led by SoftBank, raising the company's post-money valuation to $1.6 billion. [30] [31] [32]