Wisconsin-based, privately held, EatStreet, the largest independent mobile and online food ordering app in the U.S., has raised $15 million in a Series C led by 4490 Ventures and Lumia Capital, and including GCI Capital, MATH Venture Partners, and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board. This round brings the total funds raised by the five year-old company to nearly $30 million, and was also supported by multiple Wisconsin angel investors, and initial investors including gener8tor, Cornerstone Angels, Independence Angels, and Independence Equity.

 

Within the past 12 months, EatStreet has seen meteoric growth, expanding into more than 250 U.S. cities nationwide, reporting triple digit annual sales growth, and doubling its Madison, Wisconsin workforce. By the end of January 2016, the company plans to hire an additional 30 employees to provide real-time support for its users and more than 15,000 restaurants.

 

"It's unbelievable to think that just a few years ago there were three of us in a dorm room building a product that we thought would change the way people ordered food,” said Matt Howard, chief executive and co-founder of EatStreet in a recent release announcing the close of the round. “And today, we're processing millions of orders for customers nationwide."

 

The on-demand food ordering and delivery space has become startling crowded within recent years, including GrubHub, Yelp, Square’s Caviar, Munchery, and Groupon’s OrderUp in the U.S. market, and delivery services, Postmates, Uber, and the newly formed Prime Now by Amazon, which just expanded its services to include Baltimore, according to TechCrunch. Meanwhile, in markets outside the U.S., Rocket Internet has built a massive network, and Just Eat, Delivery Hero, and Deliveroo all vie for market share.

 

To set itself apart from the crowd, EatStreet focuses only on food ordering, leaving the delivery up to each restaurant, and has catered its business to serve smaller tier-two cities and towns. “We’re not a logistics company. We know our strong suit is to drive orders to our restaurants,” Mr. Howard told TechCrunch.

 

“Not being about logistics makes EatStreet a more pure marketplace and allows them and their margin profile to look considerably different,” Lumia partner, Martin Gedalin told TechCrunch. “We like that focus. It’s still to be proven how some of those other models will work out.”