It’s safe to say that everyone can get down with food. That’s probably why the tech industry has seen so many startups — some more successful than others — attempting to tap into the food space. Last year, the food tech space really took off, with global funding for food tech startups hitting $5.7 billion, according to CB Insights.
At TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2016, we’re going to chat with Maple CEO co-founder and CEO Caleb Merkl, Sweetgreen co-founder and CEO Nicolas Jammet, and Blue Apron founder and CEO Matt Salzberg. The three of them are respectively tackling the main subsets of food-tech: prepared meal delivery, online ordering and meal kit delivery.
New York-based Maple, a prepared food delivery startup that has raised over $25 million, owns the entire process — from sourcing the food, to preparing it and then delivering it. Sweetgreen, on the other hand, operates physical salad shops accompanied with mobile ordering for pick-up in its 40 locations throughout New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington D.C. and California. Sweetgreen has raised $95 million to date. Last, but certainly not least, there’s Blue Apron, the meal kit delivery startup with $193 million in funding and a valuation of $2 billion.
Right now, Maple, Sweetgreen and Blue Apron seem to be doing well while other food startups are in turmoil. In March, SpoonRocket shut down its operations in the U.S. and Munchery recently lost its chief customer experience officer just a few months after joining the company. At Disrupt NY, we’ll talk about how to keep your food startup above water, scaling food businesses, challenges with delivery, environmental impacts of the food tech industry and lots more.
Join us for what should be a satiating conversation about food tech at Disrupt in New York, May 9 through May 11. Be sure to snag your ticket soon to take advantage of early bird pricing.
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