Foodbomb, a wholesale food platform for the food service industry in Australia, recently announced a AU$1.4 million investment led by EVP Fund II.
The financing will be used to significantly bolster the product and development team to further disrupt the wholesale food procurement and ordering process with Foodbomb’s ultimate goal being to own market share of Australia’s $40 billion hospitality industry.
Following the investment, Justin Lipman of EVP II will join the Foodbomb board.
After the completion of EVP’s fifth investment out of their second venture fund, Lipman noted, “Food and hospitality represents one of Australia’s truly significant sectors and to date, is not a vertical that has adopted technology at a similar rate to other industries.
“We spent a lot of time with food service operators within the space to understand how technology can help to improve margins, drive efficiencies across day to day activity and ultimately replace traditional pen and paper based practices.”
He added, “Foodbomb is well placed to become a key component of the requisite technology stack all food service operators utilise.”
What does Foodbomb do?
Dubbed as the Webjet of the food service industry, Foodbomb is an innovative procurement platform that uniquely solves problems for both the businesses ordering through the platform as well as the suppliers selling through the platform.
Foodbomb wholesale suppliers receive more orders with ease by being exposed to a new marketplace of businesses as well as enjoying guaranteed payment.
With the platform providing transparent pricing, more choice and next day delivery, food service businesses can enjoy a simple yet intelligent online ordering process saving valuable time.
Foodbomb currently aggregates over 50 food suppliers into a one stop shop.
There are currently over 250 Sydney metro restaurants, cafes, pubs, clubs, caterers and clubs ordering off the platform, accounting for 2000 transactions worth $500,000 per month.
How has Foodbomb gotten to this point?
The platform was founded in 2017 by Paul Tory, who has over 20 years experience in wholesale and ran a home meat delivery business Butcherman for 8 years.
Butcherman connected consumers with over 30 independent butchers throughout Sydney in one place, when cafes and restaurants began to approach his B2C operation, Tory saw the wholesale gap.
With over 85,000 hospitality venues in Australia and more than 6,000 suppliers around the country, Foodbomb provides technology that can effortlessly bring them together with the potential to dramatically overhaul the way wholesale food ordering is managed in this 40 billion dollar Australian market.
Tory says, “Hospitality operators are under increasing pressure and expectations, they don’t have the time to spend hours comparing ever-changing prices across a range of sites and ordering systems, which then all require separate accounts and lines of credit.”
Tory credits Foodbombs’ growth and success to creating a solid product that saves its customers thousands of dollars and loads of time, quickly earning trust.
Why has Foodbomb been successful?
Many customers initially sign up to order a particular product and then begin to rely on Foodbomb for other needs, referrals are continuing to build both the customer and supplier bases.
“Marketing to date has been fairly limited, but word of mouth has been overwhelming. We’ve had several suppliers wanting to be listed because a restaurant asked them to.” Tory said.
While enjoying increased transparency and democratised prices, Foodbomb’s users haven’t had to compromise on quality or selection.
Operators like Site Pizza Bar Little Bay, have access to a wide range of both specialist and big-name suppliers in one place, on one account.
“Being a true Italian pizza shop, I didn’t think Foodbomb would have all the products I needed. Not only is there more available, but I’m saving money,” said Glen Mezei who runs Site Pizza Bar.
James Scarano of Fruitlicious Wholesale says, “We have been using Foodbomb for about 3 months now and the results have been better than we could have expected.
“Within 24 hours of going live on the platform we had received our first order. The platform is easy to use and the support from Paul and the team is second to none.”
With already strong results but avenues like marketing and interstate expansion yet to be leveraged, Foodbomb’s steady, promising growth is just beginning.
Having a firm foothold in the Sydney market, Tory and the team at Foodbomb now have their sights set on bringing their service to vendors and hospitality businesses Australia-wide.
Tory says, “Gone are the days of multiple frantic phone calls in the slivers of time between prep and service. We’re looking forward to helping venues across the country modernise and simplify their ordering.”
