5 Sizzling Hot Food Startups Hungry to Hire Tech Talent in 2022
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Food tech is sizzling hot with investors.
The industry saw record VC investment of $40B in 2021—doubling the previous high mark—as tech companies work to optimize how people grow, consume, and discard food.
Companies in this sector develop agricultural technology for farming aimed at improving yield, efficiency, and profitability through things like crop and herd monitoring as well as robotic farm labor. They also develop new foods and help optimize operations for grocers and restaurants.
The spike in funding is spurred by several major trends accelerated by the pandemic that continue through today. These include the popularity of online ordering and food delivery; shocks to the supply chain; global labor shortages; and growing demand for more sustainable food systems.
Investment into food e-commerce has been rising over the past decade, and the trend accelerated significantly after the onset of Covid-19, requiring companies to build out infrastructure to meet consumer demand. Online grocery and other digital-first food providers attracted record fundraising in 2021, and this year Chipotle launched a $50M venture fund for early-stage food tech startups.
Startups that created vegan products and non-cultivated meat alternatives overtook cultivated meat in terms of deal amount at the seed stage in 2021, suggesting increasing early-stage innovation in the meat alternative field. Y Combinator, Techstars, 500 Global, Plug and Play Tech Center, and FoodBytes are among the most active investors in the sector.
Hungry to get into the space? Check out our list of 5 hot food techs hiring today!
- B2B
- Growth StageExpanding market presence
- Top InvestorsThis company has received a significant amount of investment from top investors
- Website
- http://www.usepepper.com
- Employees
- 201-500
- Locations
- New York City, Toronto
- About
Pepper is building the digital OS for the food supply chain. The e-commerce platform enables food distributors to find new customers, deepen relationships, grow revenue, and run more efficiently.
- Industries
Jobs
1 week ago$80k – $100kOnsite or remote • Los Angeles+41 year of expHead of Sales DevelopmentFull-time4 weeks ago$160k – $200kOnsite or remote • New York City+35 years of exp
Order the right ingredients. delivered at the right time. for the right price. from your phone51-200 Employees- B2C
- B2B
- Growth StageExpanding market presence
- Top InvestorsThis company has received a significant amount of investment from top investors
- YC FundedStartup funded by Y Combinator
- Website
- http://www.gocheetah.com/
- Employees
- 51-200
- Locations
- San Francisco
- About
Cheetah is the leading e-commerce solution for small-medium business supplies, with a $1T market in the US alone. Cheetah offers business owners a simple, affordable and fast solution for the procurement of their daily supplies. With Cheetah, business owners can reduce the time it takes to manage inventory from 2 hours to 5 minutes per day, lower waste and increase cash flow.
- Industries
B2B Express Delivery
Where organizations understand their employees and take actions to engage their workforce11-50 Employees- B2B
- Early StageStartup in initial stages
- Top InvestorsThis company has received a significant amount of investment from top investors
- Website
- https://gethyphen.com/
- Employees
- 11-50
- Locations
- San Francisco, Bengaluru, Raleigh
- About
Hyphen is a vertically integrated company that puts kitchen ops on autopilot with the use of software and robotics. Hyphen's robotic makeline increases profitability and efficiency in the kitchen by making all digital orders (delivery, pick-up, drive-thru, QR code) within seconds.
- Industries
- B2B
- Scale StageRapidly increasing operations
- Website
- https://www.nextbite.io/
- Employees
- 201-500
- Locations
- Remote
- About
Nextbite is focused on helping restaurants increase demand and revenue as the only virtual restaurant solution that pairs a proven SAAS order-management solution with a selection of top quality, highly visible, delivery-only brands that set new standards in quality control. Founded by restaurateurs, we have helped thousands of restaurants tackle the challenges of delivery and are building new revenue streams using the under-utilized labor and space of their own kitchens.
- Industries
- B2B
- Early StageStartup in initial stages
- Website
- http://www.groupraise.com
- Employees
- 11-50
- About
GroupRaise is a marketplace that helps restaurants host large groups of customers, typically 20-200+, in exchange for donating a percentage of sales to a charitable cause.
- Industries
- Social Fundraising
5 Sizzling Hot Food Startups Hungry to Hire Tech Talent in 2022
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