Founded in late 2016 by brothers Eman and Shy Pahlavani, Hungry began with a bevy of chefs in licensed commercial kitchens in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The platform screens applicants and tastes their handiwork before adding them, taking care of logistics and expanding customer bases. Hungry makes its money by marking up chefs’ wholesale prices—and aims to take a bite out of the $65 billion office and events catering market.
This latest round will help Hungry launch in new markets—both because of the cash and the star power. Uber famously leaned on celebrity investors to help create buzz as it expanded into different cities, and Hungry is using a similar blueprint: the Seahawks’ Wagner will help in Seattle just as Hart and the Rams’ Gurley will in Los Angeles, following Colicchio’s efforts in New York and Usher’s in Atlanta .
To be sure, there are plenty of potential challenges going forward, and it’s far from certain the investors in this round will enjoy the same sort of returns as those who invested in the Series A. The coronavirus outbreak has not only cooled the economy, but a startup that depends on communal dining in office buildings could suffer if more businesses encourage employees to work remotely, at least in the short term.
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