Last year, Fantuan received an Enterprise Fast 15 award from Deloitte Canada a month before announcing a US$40M Series C round of funding toward bringing Chinese-style food delivery experiences to Canada.
Fantuan has followed up this series of events with another: the acquisition of Chowbus, a delivery service business and restaurant management software provider founded in Chicago in 2016.
Following the acquisition, Chowbus will focus on developing and optimizing its restaurant Software-as-a- Service and Point-of-Sales business, according to a statement from the companies. Fantuan and Chowbus’ strategic partnership will “enhance food delivery through an expanded restaurant network.”
“Starting with food delivery and progressing to developing our SaaS and POS systems, our end goal remains the same—to offer extensive services and technologies to restaurants,” says Linxin Wen, founder and chief of Chowbus. “With the rapid growth of the restaurant SaaS business line, we want to focus and develop better products and services for merchants.”
Inspired by Chinese commerce platform Meituan, Randy Wu founded Fantuan in 2014 as an economics student at Simon Fraser University.
“This strategic acquisition marks a close collaboration between Fantuan and Chowbus, optimizing resources for users, merchants, and delivery drivers,” chief executive Wu stated.
The CEO says the move will “further extend Fantuan’s advantage as a leader in the U.S. Asian delivery market, enriching our portfolio with more restaurants and users.”
Research suggests the US has over 120,000 Asian restaurants and that market is expected to exceed US$230 billion by 2030.
“Together, Fantuan and Chowbus will actively promote Asian food culture, offering users more delicious selections,” he said. “At the same time, we will collaborate with even more mom-and-pop restaurants and Asian-owned businesses and provide a more comprehensive back of house solution for merchants.”
With over 500 employees worldwide, Fantuan currently operates in 60 cities across the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
“We are confident that our partnership with Fantuan will provide improved and expanded services for merchants across food delivery, restaurant SaaS systems, and beyond,” said Wen.
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