St. Louis food and technology startup GiftAMeal has launched operations in several new U.S. states as part of its continued push to expand its footprint nationwide.
Since the start of March, GiftAMeal has inked deals with several restaurant chains and franchisees, as well as independent restaurants, to bring its mobile app to 10 new states. With those partnerships, GiftAMeal now has operations in 16 states.
Launched in 2015, GiftAMeal has developed an app that provides a meal to someone in need each time a user takes a photo on its app at a partner restaurant. The startup works with local food pantries to distribute the meals. GiftAMeal, led by founder and CEO Andrew Glantz, says its app includes more than 350 restaurants and has helped provide over 885,000 meals to those in need. Restaurants pay a fee to be listed on the app, which GiftAMeal says provides the establishment with an additional marketing tool and a chance to be involved in giving back to the community.
The largest expansion initiative undertaken recently by GiftAMeal is a new partnership that began April 1 with chicken restaurant Chick’nCone to make its app available at all 17 of the restaurant’s U.S. locations. That will expand GiftAMeal’s reach to 11 new markets and is also expected to include future growth, with Chick’nCone currently having 58 future locations in the works.
From mid-March to early April, Glantz said GiftAMeal has launched at more than 60 new restaurants in 13 different states, increasing the roster of restaurants using its app by 21%. In addition to partnership with Chick’nCone, the startup's recent expansion has also included deals to expand to several locations of Kolache Factory, Nothing Bundt Cakes and Fat Shack.
GiftAMeal embarked on its nationwide growth strategy in 2021 when it announced 32 corporate-owned Lion’s Choice locations in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas joined its app. That led it to explore expansion with other restaurant chains, Glantz said.
“We were finding when we looked at pitching chains in other cities that sometimes restaurants would say ‘we see you’re succeeding with Lion’s Choice. That’s great, but can you succeed outside of St. Louis,’” Glantz said.
At the start of this year, GiftMeal began a partnership to have its app available at Andy’s Frozen Custard locations in the St. Louis region, North Carolina, Osage Beach, Missouri, and Columbia, Missouri. That partnership helped “prove out” that GiftAMeal could find success beyond St. Louis and accelerated discussions with other restaurant chains, Glantz said. GiftAMeal initially believed it might have to take a city-by-city approach to its expansion strategy, building up a roster of restaurants in each city to succeed there. However, Glantz said its partnership with chain restaurants have helped accelerate its expansion into new markets.
“Now we’ve seen GiftAMeal can succeed where there’s not a lot of other GiftAMeal restaurants,” he said.
While it has targeted expanding its footprint, GiftAMeal has also increased its roster of restaurants locally, including adding all 15 restaurants located at the food hall at City Foundry in Midtown.
GiftAMeal’s growth comes after it raised $500,000 in 2021 to pursue growth in new cities. It has 10 employees, up from five a year ago.
