Marc Lore's Wonder Files Confidentially for an IPO

Wonder, the food startup founded by Marc Lore, has taken a first step toward the stock market. The company said on Thursday that it has confidentially filed for an initial public offering.

A billion dollars of dealmaking

A confidential filing is the paper a company sends to regulators before its plans become public. Wonder has spent at least $1 billion on acquisitions. They include the delivery service Grubhub, the meal kit brand Blue Apron and the delivery and logistics provider Relay, along with some restaurant concepts.

More than $3 billion in venture funding has paid for those deals. A Series D round earlier this year, a later-stage venture raise, lifted its pre-money valuation to $9 billion. Pre-money means the value before the new cash is counted.

Lore told CNBC in September that IPO proceeds would allow more acquisitions and work toward the goal of making food more accessible.

A hard moment to list

As a public company, Wonder will likely face investor scrutiny. Weak consumer sentiment has weighed on restaurant stocks recently, and swings in the market have unsettled IPOs in several sectors.

The business behind the filing

Wonder began as a new take on food delivery, built around sprinter vans fitted with mobile kitchens. Today it has roughly 170 brick-and-mortar locations across the US. Each serves menu items from more than two dozen "restaurants" covering a range of cuisines, and some carry branding from celebrity chefs.

From Nov. 17, the company plans to add more options through Wonder Create. It lets influencers, entrepreneurs and brands open a restaurant business inside a Wonder location for $10 a month. They earn a portion of the revenue from orders.

Lore created Wonder in 2018. Before it, he built Diapers.com and Jet.com and sold them to Amazon and Walmart. The company describes its offer as "the best restaurants from across the country, all in one place", for delivery and takeout through its vertically integrated app.

Source: CNBC