Wonder Group Raises $700M in Funding, Plans 90 Locations by 2026

Former Walmart exec and Jet.com founder Marc Lore and his newest company Wonder Group have raised $700 million from various investors to support its Vision, Capital and People (VCP) plan, which is designed to support the business’ execution and scale, Lore revealed in a LinkedIn post.

The funding round was led by existing investors NEA, GV, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Forerunner, Alpine and Harmony — a who’s who in the venture capital world. New contributors include Dragoneer, Jefferies, Red & Blue Ventures, CAS Investments, Kuvare Insurance and Fubon Ventures.

“We’ve learned so much over the past year, and this round of capital is a show of confidence in what our team is creating: the super app of mealtime,” Lore wrote in the post. Lore himself even added $100 million to the funding pot to support Wonder’s top three priorities:

• Physical expansion: The company plans to reach 35 physical locations by the end of 2024 and 90 by the end of 2025. At the top of the list are two new food hall storefronts in Teterboro and Ledgewood, N.J., both of which are scheduled to open this year.
  
• Research and development: Lore revealed that Wonder will be “aggressively investing” in software enhancements, new menu items, new chef and restaurant partnerships and more.
  
• Proprietary technology: By building its own technology, Wonder will gain a significant intellectual property (IP) advantage and be able to scale its vertically integrated operations. Key elements within the system include backend technology to reduce food waste, next-gen kitchen designs to support order quality and consistency, and an enhanced delivery network to improve the last mile experience.

An Ambitious Year

Lore shared that the Wonder team set a one-year deadline for validating the model, setting three ambitious goals:

1. Serve 30 of its restaurants from a single location with an “order-to-eat time” of less than 30 minutes;
   
2. Achieve and maintain a Net Promoter Score of 60+; and
   
3. Deliver attractive unit-level profitability.

Wonder has met and exceeded these goals, going on to develop more than 350 new menu items, partner with big-name chefs like José Andrés, acquire meal kit company Blue Apron and open an additional 11 locations across three states in the Northeast, including a food hall concept in a Pennsylvania Walmart.

Prior to this funding round, Wonder most recently received $100 million from Nestlé to bolster its technology and operations business.