Atlanta-based Goodr knew changing the food supply chain ecosystem and rethinking hunger was essential before the pandemic.
Then videos of hours-long lines for food assistance became some of the more shocking visuals in the early part of 2020.
“With the pandemic, people started to see that hunger needed to be addressed in a systematic way. And that’s what we’ve been saying from the beginning — it’s a logistics problem,” Founder Jasmine Crowe told Hypepotamus.
But in order to reach those most in need, Crowe said Goodr embraced the “power of the pivot” as many of its traditional clients — restaurants, convention centers, and hotels — closed or suspended work during 2020.
“We’re now selling two services. Food distribution, which was kind of birthed out of the pandemic, as well as food recovery, which is what we’ve always done,” Crowe said.
On the food distribution side of things, Goodr’s first deal was with the Atlanta Public Schools. “We re-engineered our technology to be B2B to be B2C. We started going to the schools, which were our customers, and started picking up meals and delivering them to students.”
Crowe said Goodr also expanded its popup grocery stores over the course of the pandemic, partnering the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm, and creating mobile markets with Wellstar Health System.
NEW INVESTMENT & THE ROAD TO SERIES A
Goodr quietly raised an oversubscribed Pre-Series A round, totaling $1.5 million.
Capital One Ventures, Backstage Capital, Unreasonable Ventures, and Emerson Collective all joined the round.
This is Capital One Venture’s first impact investment.
“This was the first time I actually interviewed investors and turned investors down. I didn’t do that when I first was raising capital because I was so desperate,” Crowe told Hypepotamus. “I also extended a good percentage of my round to angel investors as opposed to just VC firms. And I wanted to do that intentionally because I have found that angel investors have been the most helpful to me as an actual founder.”
“This is gonna be the last time for people to get in because the price goes up in a couple more months [with a Series A],” she added.
Goodr has raised around $2.5 million to date, and Crowe said the startup has brought in almost $7 million in revenue.
The investment will go towards hiring. Crowe said the team has been 7 people for some time but is looking to expand to close to 20. The team is strategically hiring for a Lead Software Engineer and other marketing roles.
As Crowe gears up for a busy spring and summer, she has also been tapped to join the graduation circuit. Crowe will head back to North Carolina Central University, her alma mater, to deliver the university’s 137th commencement address on May 8th.
Feature photo provided by Goodr.
