Grubhub

Overview

In 1999, Seamless was founded by two lawyers, Jason Finger and an associate, fed up with out-of-date paper menus. In 2004, Grubhub was founded by Matthew Mayer "Matt" Maloney and Michael "Mike" Evans, two web developers looking for an alternative to paper menus.

In 2013, Grubhub and Seamless merged. The combined organization, Grubhub, went public in April 2014 and trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "GRUB".

Grubhub's executives include:

As of Q4 2016, the company processes more than 290,000 orders/day and has 8.2 million active diners.

Brands

Grubhub's portfolio of brands includes Seamless, AllMenus, MenuPages, Restaurants on the Run, DiningIn, Delivered Dish, and LAbite.

Grubhub

Grubhub is an online and mobile food-ordering company that connects diners with local restaurants. Diners who order through Grubhub's website or mobile apps—for iOS and Android devices—can pay with cash, credit or PayPal.

Seamless

Seamless is an online and mobile food ordering platform that connects diners with local restaurants. Seamless serves consumer diners, as well as corporate businesses in the U.S. and London. Shows diners local restaurants available for delivery or pick up. Diners who order through the Seamless website or mobile apps—for iOS and Android devices—can pay with cash, credit or PayPal.

Seamless' corporate product allows businesses to consolidate all food ordering and subsequent billing into a single account. The product provides three ways to order:

MenuPages

MenuPages was acquired by Seamless in September 2011.

Allmenus

Allmenus was acquired by Grubhub in September 2011.

DiningIn

DiningIn, an online ordering and food delivery company based in Brighton, Massachusetts, was acquired by Grubhub in February 2015. DiningIn operates in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, and the Twin Cities.

Restaurants on the Run

Restaurants on the Run, a corporate food delivery company based in Aliso Viejo, California, was acquired by Grubhub in February 2015, operating in Orange County, San Diego, Inland Empire, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, Houston, Tulsa & Chicago.

Delivered Dish

In December 2015, Grubhub acquired Delivered Dish, a restaurant delivery service in seven markets across the Pacific Northwest and Southwest, including Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego, Portland, El Paso and Albuquerque.

LA Bite

LAbite, one of the largest restaurant delivery services in the U.S., was acquired by Grubhub in May 2016. Most of LAbite's volume comes from the Greater Los Angeles area.

Grubhub history

Chicago-based Grubhub was founded in 2004 by Mike Evans and Matt Maloney, looking for an alternative to paper menus. Two years later, in 2006, Maloney and Evans won first place in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business's Edward L. Kaplan New Venture Challenge with the business plan for Grubhub.

In November 2007, Grubhub secured $1.1 million in Series A funding (led by Amicus Capital and Origin Ventures), which enabled market expansion into San Francisco and New York.

In March 2009, Grubhub earned $2 million in Series B funding, led by Origin Ventures and Leo Capital, which was followed by $11 million in Series C funding, led by Benchmark Capital in November 2010. $20 million in Series D funding was raised (led by DAG Ventures) in March 2011.

In September 2011, Grubhub secured $50 million in Series E funding and acquired New York-based competitor Dotmenu, the parent company of Allmenus and Campusfood. In December 2015, Grubhub acquired Delivered Dish, a restaurant delivery service in seven markets across the Pacific Northwest and Southwest, including Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego, Portland, El Paso and Albuquerque. LAbite, a Los Angeles-based restaurant delivery service, was acquired by Grubhub in May 2016.

Seamless history

In 1999, New York lawyer Jason Finger founded SeamlessWeb to provide companies with a web-based system for ordering food from restaurants and caterers. Six years later, in 2005, SeamlessWeb introduced a free ordering service to consumer diners to complement the existing corporate-ordering service. In April 2006, SeamlessWeb was acquired by Aramark and integrated into its Food, Hospitalities, and Facilities segment.

Jonathan Zabusky was named President of Seamless in 2009, and by June 2011, Seamless was re-privatized, as Boston-based Spectrum Equity Associates invested $50 million for a minority stake in the company from Aramark. The company then changed its name from SeamlessWeb to Seamless.

In September 2011, Seamless acquired MenuPages, and in February 2012, Seamless introduced the industry's first iPad app.

Grubhub and Seamless merger

In May 2013, Grubhub and Seamless announced that they were merging, with Seamless representing 58% of the equity and GrubHub representing 42% of the equity of the combined business; the merger was finalized in early August 2013.

IPO

Grubhub went public in April 2014 and trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "GRUB".

Delivery

In June 2014, Grubhub began offering delivery to restaurants that don't operate their own delivery service. The company is now delivering in more than 50 markets across the U.S. (publicly announced markets include Atlanta, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco/Bay Area, D.C., Southeast Florida, Portland, Denver, Pittsburgh, Detroit, San Diego, Brooklyn/Queens (NYC), Chicago and Las Vegas). More than 5,000 restaurants are now using Grubhub delivery.

Grubhub's UK competitors are Deliveroo, Just Eat, and Hungryhouse. In the US, its competitors include Boston-based Foodler, as well as Yelp, Eat24 (a California-based delivery startup), Instacart, and potentially Uber

Controversy

On November 10, 2016, after the victory of President-elect Donald Trump in the general election, Grubhub President and CEO Matt Maloney, sent a company-wide memo to employees saying that he rejected "nationalist, anti-immigrant and hateful politics of Donald Trump". The Washington Times reported that Maloney "unleashed a political screed after the Nov. 8 election and said that those who disagree with its [the majority of the company personnel's] anti-Trump views should resign."

After a Twitter boycott campaign was initiated, Maloney later claimed his words were "misconstrued", adding "I want to clarify that I did not ask for anyone to resign if they voted for Trump. I would never make such a demand. To the contrary, the message of the email is that we do not tolerate discriminatory activity or hateful commentary in the workplace, and that we will stand up for our employees." In a tweet that was later deleted, Maloney added: "To be clear, Grubhub does not tolerate hate and we are proud of all our employees - even those who voted for Trump." By Thursday night, the hashtag #BoycottGrubHub was trending on Twitter.

Stock selloff by CEO

On October 24, 2016, Maloney sold 14,491 shares of the stock at an average price of $43.55, for a total value of $631,083.05.

On November 7, Maloney sold 14,491 shares of the company's stock at a price of $37.80, for a total transaction of $547,759.80 in personal profit. Following the sales, Maloney now directly owns 1,649 shares of the company stock, valued at approximately $62,332.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

On November 11, 2016, after the controversy, the company's shares tumbled 5.93%.