ezCater

ezCater was founded in 2007 by Stefania Mallett and Briscoe Rodgers, building an online marketplace specifically focused on business catering, a segment distinct from typical consumer food delivery given its focus on larger group orders, advance scheduling, and business-specific needs such as itemized receipts for expense reporting and reliable delivery timing for meetings and events, requirements that mainstream consumer food delivery apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats were not originally built to handle well. The platform lets business customers, including office administrators, executive assistants, and event planners, search and order from a large network of local restaurants and dedicated catering companies for occasions ranging from routine team lunches to larger corporate events and conferences, while giving the restaurants and caterers on ezCater's marketplace access to business catering demand they might otherwise struggle to reach on their own, since these establishments are often independent local businesses without significant marketing budgets or established relationships with corporate catering coordinators. ezCater has built specific features relevant to business catering needs, including reliability guarantees addressing the particular pain point of catering orders arriving late or incorrectly for a scheduled meeting or event, business account management tools for companies that order catering frequently across multiple offices or departments, and expense management integrations relevant to corporate purchasing and reimbursement processes. The company experienced significant disruption to its core business during the COVID-19 pandemic, as widespread office closures and remote work dramatically reduced demand for in-office catering, and has worked to rebuild and diversify its business as hybrid and in-office work patterns have evolved since. ezCater has raised very substantial venture funding from investors including Iconiq Capital, Wellington Management, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, reaching a valuation exceeding $1.6 billion.

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