附近上门

, which offers contactless pickup and delivery of food and supplies, has closed $36 million in a Series B funding round, the company exclusively told 附近上门 News.

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led the investment, which also included participation from , 听补苍诲 . The financing brings the San Francisco-based company’s to more than $66 million since its 2015 inception, according to 附近上门 data.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cheetah offered a wholesale delivery service of ingredients and supplies for restaurants and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area. But when the startup saw its business plunge by 80 percent 鈥渙vernight鈥� due to shelter-in-place orders, Cheetah quickly pivoted.

The startup now offers a direct-to-consumer service called Cheetah For People that delivers a range of goods such as bakery items, beverages, dairy, meat, poultry, seafood, fresh produce, condiments, snacks and cleaning supplies.

With so many retailers offering delivery service these days, I was curious as to what makes Cheetah different from its competitors.

Na’ama Moran, co-founder and CEO of Cheetah, told me that because Cheetah has its own fleet of refrigerated trucks it鈥檚 able to offer 鈥渃ompetitive wholesale prices.鈥� She said that unlike some similar services, Cheetah promises next-day delivery and pickup.

Consumers can place orders via Cheetah鈥檚 mobile app and then pick up items from one of Cheetah鈥檚 designated drive-through locations. Items are placed in the driver鈥檚 trunk to avoid contact.

With the pivot, the company currently services restaurants, small businesses and consumers. Its trucks essentially serve as mobile warehouses, Moran said. It currently operates 10 pickup locations in the Bay Area.

Lior Susan, founder and managing partner at Eclipse, believes the company鈥檚 vertical integration and technology stack is poised to do well considering the 鈥渃hanging buyer behavior as food supply chains shifted from a focus on commercial operations to consumer homes.鈥�

The entire supply chain

Cheetah鈥檚 original model is similar to that of , a Berlin-based startup that has developed a platform to make it easier for restaurants to order food from their suppliers. Choco recently raised $30.2 million at a $250 million valuation, news we covered in this piece earlier this month. Cheetah differs from Choco, according to Moran, in that it manages the entire supply chain.

鈥淚t鈥檚 built with our technology stack from the ground up,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat gives us a lot of advantage from a margin and profitability standpoint, in addition to allowing us to control the customer experience.鈥�

So far, the pivot is going well, according to Moran.

鈥淲e had supplies in stock that groceries did not have, including toilet paper, flour, water and other hard to-get items, at incredibly affordable pricing,鈥� she told 附近上门 News.

In less than eight weeks, the company has seen a run rate of $1 million a month in sales. This is in contrast to last year when it laid off staff after exiting nonperforming markets.

Now, Cheetah has plans to expand in 2021 to Dallas/Fort Worth, and 鈥減ossibly one or two other markets.鈥�

The company also recently inked an exclusive with Impossible Foods, allowing consumers to buy the plant-based Impossible Burger for the first time through Cheetah’s contactless mobile fulfillment centers.

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