Food is one thing that connects people everywhere no matter what they prefer to eat. Foodtech platform GrubMarket operates a solution that connects businesses and consumers in several countries to a wide range of grocery items. The company is expanding its offerings and reach with the acquisition of Rainfield Marketing Group.
Based just south of Los Angeles in Vernon, Rainfield is a food distribution and wholesale company that provides stores across the U.S. with fresh fruits, vegetables and Asian specialty items sourced from global suppliers. It’s most known for green onions and carries products like enoki mushrooms and Korean radishes. Rainfield’s climate and humidity-controlled warehouses span more than 150,000 square feet of space.
The company will join San Francisco-based GrubMarket’s network of wholesalers and adopt the company’s tech solutions. GrubMarket sells its products to grocers, food service businesses, restaurants and end consumers. It also operates a tech platform that helps its business clients improve efficiency, gather insights and increase customer satisfaction. The company also provides home delivery services, offering consumers produce and packaged food items at prices up to 50 percent lower than grocery stores, according to GrubMarket.
GrubMarket opted to acquire Rainfield due to the company’s prevalence in the California market and its reputation for safe food practices. Rainfield has received food safety certifications from Good Agricultural Practices and PrimusGFS, a global food safety initiative.
“Rainfield Marketing Group has built a best-in-class reputation for being a top provider of exotic and specialty fresh produce. … They are one of the most influential and well-known Asian produce distributors in California,” Mike Xu, CEO of GrubMarket, said in a statement. “Richard [Choe, Rainfield’s founder], and his team have done a wonderful job scaling the company to double-digit, year-over-year revenue growth while maintaining a sterling reputation in food safety. … This acquisition enables GrubMarket to further strengthen our presence in California and expand our global sourcing power.”
Following the acquisition, Rainfield will use GrubMarket’s WholesaleWare software suite and its Orders IO product. The first solution is GrubMarket’s SaaS platform that offers food wholesalers and distributors tools for financial management, sales, online ordering, inventory management and more. Orders IO is its mobile e-commerce app.
Rainfield’s current leadership team will continue to manage the company.
“Rainfield’s mission is to be the specialty produce grower and shipper of choice across the country through exceptional service, consistent quality and second-to-none food safety standards,” Choe said in a statement. “We are thrilled to join the GrubMarket team, who shares our goals and embodies the qualities needed to build a thriving food business.”
This acquisition comes one year after GrubMarket raised a $25 million oversubscribed Series E round.
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