Overview:
Think back to your favorite food as a kid. Was it your grandma’s apple pie? Or those creamy mashed potatoes piled high on Thanksgiving? Much of our love for food comes from a sense of nostalgia. Memories are made through the tastes and smells of the foods we eat. Joe Ariel wanted to help food lovers nationwide tap into this nostalgia and launched Goldbelly (goldbelly.com) in 2013 to help make nationwide delivery as easy as takeout. Goldbelly is a curated online marketplace that allows food lovers nationwide order the best beignets from New Orleans, barbecue from Austin, and bagels from New York. In 2020 during pandemic shutdowns, the site reported a 300% increase in year-over-year business and brought in one million new customers in that year alone.
Goldbelly has secured its place in the massive and growing market thanks to a seriously extensive line-up of vendors from restaurants all over the country. Goldbelly boasts more than 850 restaurants on its platform and touts exceptional customer service for customers and vendors alike.
Investment Rationale:
645 got to know Joe Ariel early in the Goldbelly journey and worked together to sketch out what the company could become during office hours and working sessions in a NYC WeWork. In 2015, when the company was ready to raise outside capital, 645 understood that there was national demand for premium food products not available locally. Small food makers could not offer nationwide food delivery efficiently and affordably. Therefore, a platform to discover, buy, and sell food directly from food makers was necessary to fill this gap. At the same time, Goldbelly had started to experience real traction going after an underserved market leading to team to lean in and invest.