After a financial hurdle earlier this year following the close of Silicon Valley Bank, Denver-based food tech startup Bitewell is back on track with big plans in the works.
Bitewell announced that it closed an oversubscribed $4 million seed round. Co-led by Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech and Refinery Venture, this is the startup’s second raise. It raised a rolling $1.9 million pre-seed round between 2020 and 2022.
The startup said it's the first corporate food health benefits provider. Its platform takes a user’s health history and dietary restrictions and matches them with healthy food that fits their diet. It also generates a food-health score for more than 85% of the U.S. food supply.
Bitewell closed the first half of its seed round three days before SVB shuttered, the financial institution that held the initial funds. Bitewell co-founder and CEO Samantha Citro Alexander spent the next few days speaking with investors and employees about the next steps, how to access their funds and when to close the second half of the round, which was expected to close three weeks later, she said.
“In some ways, [SVB closing] was a blessing in disguise because our fantastic co-lead partner Refinery Ventures ended up coming in as part of that second close, and I don't know that we would have them as a partner if the timing didn't work out in the way that it did,” Citro Alexander said.
Founded in 2020, Bitewell partners with employers and insurance providers who offer the food tech platform to about 11,000 employees.
To keep up with its growing clientele, the startup will use some of its seed rounds to hire additional staff, including executives, and build out its tech and data infrastructure.
Citro Alexander said the company will primarily hire engineers, data scientists and sales associates. The company currently has 17 employees and aims to grow to 30 or 40 people in the future.
Raising capital isn’t the only thing Bitewell has been up to as of late. Citro Alexander told the DBJ it will soon move into a new, larger space that will be home to an “exciting innovation center.” This comes nine months after Bitewell opened its first office at Taxi by Zepplin in Denver.
“We are on a mission to improve the world’s health through food,” Citro Alexander said. “And to do that, we are creating a new category of benefits. Food has health benefits and those are our two primary drivers from a mission and vision perspective.”
