Online pizza delivery firm Slice was the beneficiary this week of a $43 million investment from private equity firm KKR & Co.
The investment, according to spokesman Jake Heller, co-head of KKR’s Technology Growth team in North America, comes as a way to get involved with more small businesses.
Heller said his interest in Slice came from how the company approaches delivery services from a “foundational perspective,” allowing independent pizza stores to compete with big names like Dominoes or Pizza Hut.
Slice is a food delivery app that will go specifically to various pizzerias and deliver food in the manner Uber Eats and other such contenders do. The website touts 12,000 pizzerias on the app and claims it has saved those restaurants a total of $130,000 with its services.
Slice’s increase in interest is, of course, related to the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen people largely changing their eating habits to accommodate an influx of home deliveries while people remain in quarantine.
Slice’s model — and the massive interest from KKR — is a reflection of where the demand in food and restaurants lies now. As the pandemic sees people prudently avoiding public spaces, they’re turning to digital means.
This is leading to innovations in the digital space as sellers begin to eye creative means of catering to people who are very into delivery services right now.
As OfferUp CEO Nick Huzar told PYMNTS, the key to surviving the pandemic will be in finding ways to capitalize on peoples’ needs in the convenient, digital ways more customers are shopping these days.
Slice’s recent round was also backed by venture capital firm GGV Capital and other early investors, and the company is now valued at around $82 million in total.
Slice plans to use its new funding to boost its online ordering, marketing, payments and other such services.
