Choco Achieves Unicorn Status in Quest to Drive Zero Food Waste in Supply Chains

BERLIN and NEW YORK -- Choco, the technology company building a better food system for restaurants and suppliers, announced today that it has raised $111 million in Series B2 funding with a valuation of $1.2 billion. The round comes just six months after Choco's $100 million Series B, resulting in almost doubling its valuation, and earning the company unicorn status just three-and-a-half years after its inception. The internal Series B2 round is led by U.S.-based growth investor G Squared, alongside Insight Partners.

The funding comes on the heels of 350% growth in Choco users worldwide; and in February 2022, the total value of goods traded through Choco exceeded $1.2 billion. The company will use the additional funding to drive continued technology innovation, support its strong growth in the U.S. and Europe, and expand to additional markets.

"Wholesalers want to prepare for the digital age and need intuitive software for ordering, finance and logistics that will enable them to remain competitive over the next 5 years. This demand is evidenced by the traction Choco's software and services have received with their ability to increase profit margins and supply chain visibility through those vectors," said Daniel Khachab, CEO of Choco. "This new round of funding will enable us to accelerate our product development and launch new projects to help meet additional supplier needs, as well as expand our customer service and drive global growth as we continue to pursue our goal of eliminating food waste within the supply chain through greater transparency."

Choco's software digitizes ordering, supply chain operations and communications for suppliers and restaurants. Food service is a $6 trillion under-served market that today mostly transacts through pen and paper or via manual spreadsheets. This leads to a lack of real-time data, which is compounded by opaque supply chains and high operational workloads, making it difficult for suppliers to accurately balance supply and demand while juggling logistics challenges. These inefficiencies lead to 35% of the food supply being wasted even before it reaches consumers. If food waste was a country it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gas worldwide. Choco's platform addresses all these problems, with an aim to completely digitize the food wholesale market across the globe by 2026 on behalf of zero food waste.

"Choco has achieved incredible growth over the past year," said Larry Aschebrook, managing partner at G Squared. "We believe restaurants and the foodservice industry alike will need to adopt digital tools in order to be competitive in the long run. Choco is building a powerful ecosystem that will help to move the industry into the 21st century. We believe Choco can be the backbone of foodservice in the years to come. Their software already shows impressive levels of user engagement and true value creation for customers. We are excited to see Choco develop its potential to modernize the food supply chain, at a time when we believe it's needed more than ever."

For more information about Choco and its solutions, please visit Choco.com.

About Choco
Choco is a company that brings restaurateurs and their suppliers together on a digital platform. Ordering goods becomes as easy as writing a chat message. By optimizing purchasing processes, customers can save time, money and food. The latter is also Choco's main goal. Choco was founded by serial entrepreneurs Daniel Khachab and Julian Hammer. Since its founding in 2018, the company has grown rapidly and is now active in markets such as the U.S., Germany, France, Spain, Austria and Belgium. In February 2022, the total value of goods traded through Choco exceeded $1.2 billion.

About G-Squared
G Squared is a global venture capital firm that partners with dynamic companies throughout their life cycles as a complete capital solutions provider, working to create value for companies, investors, employees, and other stakeholders. The firm focuses on investments in growth-stage technology companies and has invested in over 100 portfolio companies since it was founded in 2011. For more information on G Squared and its portfolio, visit www.gsquared.com.