Startups to Watch: Wellfound Foods

Editor’s note: This is one of our Startups to Watch of 2022. See the rest here.

Sarah Frimpong knows the art of the pandemic pivot. The founder and CEO of Wellfound Foods switched gears when wholesale distribution of the company’s grab-and-go snacks came to a screeching halt in 2020. Before Covid, those sales accounted for the majority of her business, which involved daily deliveries to more than 50 locations across the region.

But she adapted the model to lean more heavily on her “smart fridges,” vending machines that dispense prepared foods. And she hasn’t looked back after that.

Now the company is charging into 2022 with an oversubscribed $1.4 million bridge round, after closing a $600,000 seed raise at the end of 2020. The latest round was led by angel investor Khushali Shah. The Steed Family Office, led by Paladin Capital Group founder Michael Steed, and early-stage investor network Citrine Angels participated in the raise. D.C. accelerator MassLight Inc. — a software company that builds apps for startups in exchange for equity — also invested $200,000.

With that backing, Wellfound intends to continue expanding its kiosks, called SmartMarkets, now reviewing requests for installations with dozens more slated for early 2022. That’s after closing 2021 with 22 operational kiosks around the region, a far cry from its four machines just a year ago. Wellfound partners with Canteen Vending, Sodexo and Aramark at D.C.-area employers, among them health systems like Children’s National Hospital and Inova Health System, academic institutions like Georgetown University and George Mason University, the U.S. Capitol and White House campus.

Add to that: She’s now in talks with Capital Area Food Bank and applying for grants to expand Wellfound’s network to underserved areas, including the District’s wards 7 and 8.

Frimpong’s company was born in 2013 as Broodjes & Bier, but what was envisioned as a fast-casual restaurant transformed after she joined a local kitchen incubator and started making grab-and-go food for local retailers.

A closer look