Wonder Distribution LLC, a new food delivery startup led by prominent e-commerce entrepreneur Marc Lore, has reportedly raised $350 million in funding at a $3.5 billion valuation.

The investment was reported by the Wall Street Journal today. Wonder is said to have raised the funding last month from a consortium led by Bain Capital Ventures. The startup is also backed by a number of other major technology investors including Accel, New Enterprise Associates, General Catalyst and Forerunner Ventures.

Wonder operates a network of truck-based restaurants from which consumers can order food through a mobile app. Wonder trucks drive to a location near the user’s home and prepare an order on-site to ensure fresh deliveries. As of January, the startup reportedly operated 60 restaurants in four New Jersey towns.

Wonder is led by Chief Executive Officer Marc Lore, who until last year held the same role at Walmart Inc.’s e-commerce division. Lore previously co-founded Jet.com, an online retailer that Walmart purchased in 2016 for $3.3 billion. The executive had earlier founded another e-commerce company called Quidsi Inc. that was acquired by Amazon.com Inc. in 2010.

The Journal today reported that the startup’s service is available to about 132,000 households in New Jersey. The startup will reportedly expand to additional parts of New Jersey this year and, in the long term, hopes to make its service available nationwide by 2035.

Alongside its network of truck-based restaurants, Wonder operates a service called Envoy that enables users to order food from local restaurants. Envoy reportedly accounts for about a quarter of the startup’s revenue. 

Including the $350 million investment that was reported today, Wonder has raised about $900 million in debt and equity financing since launch. The startup has reportedly spent “hundreds of millions of dollars” so far to optimize recipes and reduce the amount of time needed to prepare food in its trucks. Going forward, the startup reportedly hopes to further increase chefs’ productivity by redesigning its restaurant’s kitchen layout and using software to automatically identify the most efficient way of preparing a meal.

Wonder also plans to expand into new market segments. The startup hopes to eventually offer ready-to-heat meals and meal-preparation kits alongside the existing food delivery options available in its app.

Food delivery startups have raised a significant amount of funding over the last few quarters. Quickcommerce Ltd., a rapid grocery delivery provider that does business as Zapp, closed a $200 million funding round in January. Startup Gopuff, which competes in the same segment, earlier raised a $1 billion funding round that valued it at $15 billion. 

Photo: Wonder