Food is essential, but food innovation is art.
It is, at least, for Boston startups. Here in Beantown, we’ve seen food startups go from small ideas to flourishing businesses, such as Spyce, which has been widely covered on the Today Show, the New Yorker, and more, and ezCater, which now offers catering from more than 63,000 U.S. restaurants.
Food startups have come to define the Boston startup landscape. Here’s a rundown of who’s cooking up the latest innovation.
Smoodi
Smoodi, which is part of the 2019 cohort of the summer venture program at Harvard iLabs, is creating a fully-automated smoothie machine targeted towards offices. It will allow employees to fully personalize their smoothies and aims to use fresh, natural ingredients. In the summer of 2019, Smoodi is conducting beta testing.
Cloud Creamery
Brighton-based Cloud Creamery is serving up a surprising ingredient in their ice cream: marijuana. The four-person company is creating pot-infused ice cream in flavors like lavender honey and black sesame with miso caramel and plans to distribute its products in hospitals, medical facilities, and dispensaries. In the future, the company plans to expand its distribution to the rest of New England.
Purple Carrot
Purple Carrot is the Blue Apron of Vegan food. The Needham-based startup is a subscription service that sends customers recipes, along with pre-portioned ingredients, that they can prepare for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. With $4 million in recent strategic funding from Fresh Del Monte Produce, the startup now possesses $10 million in total funding.
BRÜZD Foods
BRÜZD Foods is a food delivery startup that sells surprise packages of assorted Grade B produce, produce that is still good, but not cosmetically perfect enough to sell in grocery stores. The Boston-based company started in 2017, and aims to reduce the amount of waste created by fruits and vegetables that are thrown out each year. So far, it has raised $37,500 in funding, and plan to close its seed round in 2020.
Food for All
Food for All, a startup based out of Cambridge Plug, has created an app that allows users to buy excess food from restaurants at a discounted price. The company’s goal is to reduce the amount of food waste from restaurants, and it operates in both Boston and New York. On Kickstarter in 2016, backers raised $50,000 to help the project become a reality.
LeanBox
Boston-based LeanBox aims to stock offices with healthy food through daily restockable kiosks. They offer fresh meals, snacks, and beverages, including fresh fruit, dairy, and a variety of water and coffee selections. When possible, the startup tries to stock food from the food community in the Boston area. Currently, their kiosks are stocking more than 1200 companies.
Sautè
Sautè is a Boston-based food delivery company focuses on healthy, natural options. The startup was founded by Tena Zara, after she realized, as a working single mother, how limited food delivery options were on the days she was too tired to cook. Sautè features guest chefs from all around Boston, including Joanne Chang, the owner of Flour Bakery in Boston and Cambridge.
