A sign at the entrance to Wonder Store in midtown Manhattan.
Eric McGregor | Light Rocket | Getty Images
Food startup Wonder has secretly filed for an initial public offering, the company announced Thursday.
Founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur Marc Lore, Wonder offers delivery and takeout with a vertically integrated app that touts itself as “bringing the nation’s best restaurants in one place.”
Originally conceived as a new take on food delivery using Sprinter vans equipped with mobile kitchens, Wonder has grown to approximately 170 brick-and-mortar locations across the United States. Its locations offer menus from more than 20 “restaurants” of a variety of cuisines, including restaurants branded by celebrity chefs.
The company plans to introduce more eateries through Wonder Create starting November 17th. Influencers, entrepreneurs, and brands can pay $10 a month to start a restaurant business based in a Wonder location and earn a cut of the revenue from orders.
Wonder has spent at least $1 billion on acquisitions including delivery service Grubhub, meal kit brand Blue Apron and delivery and logistics provider Relay, and has a hot restaurant concept in place. Wonder was able to make such a big deal thanks to more than $3 billion in venture funding.
Wonder’s Series D funding round earlier this year boosted its pre-fund valuation to $9 billion.
Lore told CNBC in September that proceeds from the IPO will allow Wonder to make more acquisitions and work toward its goal of making food more accessible.
But as a publicly traded company, Wonder is also likely to face increased scrutiny from investors. Weak consumer sentiment has weighed on restaurant stocks recently, and market volatility has made the IPO market unstable for companies across a variety of industries.
Lohr previously founded Diapers.com and Jet.com, which he sold to Amazon and Walmart, respectively.
