Welcome back to the Unicorn Spotlight, a series where we highlight standout companies within the Prime Unicorn Index. Each edition gives a snapshot of what makes these billion-dollar private companies unique, how they reached their unicorn status, and why they play an important role in today’s market.
With the holidays just around the corner, a time when food, gatherings, and logistics matter more than ever, this week’s spotlight turns to ezCater, a company that has quietly become the backbone of workplace meals and large-scale group food ordering nationwide.
ezCater Overview
Founded in 2007 in Boston by Stefania Mallett and Briscoe Rodgers, ezCater is a leading nationwide marketplace for corporate catering. The company makes it simple for workplaces, teams, and events to order food from more than 100,000 restaurants and caterers across the U.S.
EzCater stands out for:
- A massive partner network offering nationwide coverage
- Strong enterprise integrations, including recurring meal programs and corporate dashboards
- Logistics tools that ensure large food orders arrive accurately and on time
- Resilience across market cycles, including explosive post-COVID demand as teams returned to offices
While most consumers know the company as the “Uber Eats of catering,” ezCater is much more: it has become the default infrastructure that many companies rely on to feed employees, host holiday gatherings, and run corporate events smoothly. As the season approaches for team lunches, appreciation meals, and end-of-year celebrations, ezCater’s role in simplifying group dining becomes especially relevant.
Recent Developments
ezCater has made headlines not only for its rapid growth, but also for several major milestones over the past few years. In 2019, the company raised a $150 million Series D round co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and GIC, pushing its valuation above $1.25 billion and officially securing its unicorn status. Since then, the company has continued to strengthen its position through strategic acquisitions and partnerships, including the purchase of Monkey Group in 2019, a software platform that helps restaurants manage and scale their catering operations. These moves have also supported ezCater’s growing relationships with large national restaurant chains such as Panera, Chipotle, and Chick-fil-A, further expanding the company’s enterprise capabilities and nationwide reach.
The Journey to Unicorn Status
ezCater reached unicorn status in 2019, propelled by rapid adoption across a wide range of industries, a high-margin marketplace model, and strong recurring revenue from enterprise meal programs. Investor confidence in the future of workplace food further accelerated the company’s rise, helping ezCater secure more than $425 million in total funding from major backers such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Insight Partners, Iconiq Capital, GIC, and Wellington Management. In recent years, the company has also explored the possibility of going public, ultimately stepping back from IPO plans in 2022, a move mirrored by several marketplace tech firms prioritizing sustainable, profitable growth before entering the public markets.
Why ezCater Matters
As businesses increasingly use food to build culture, reward employees, and bring hybrid teams together, ezCater has become a foundational layer of workplace operations. The company owns a category with few direct competitors at national scale, and as holiday season demand spikes, ezCater sits at the center of America’s group-dining ecosystem.
Whether it’s a small Christmas lunch for the team or a 500-person corporate holiday party, ezCater has positioned itself as the simplest way to bring people together through food.