HUNGRY deepens commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion with investment from leading venture investment syndicate Gaingels
Food tech platform HUNGRY today announced an investment from Gaingels, the leading venture investment syndicate in service of the LGBT+ community and its allies.
ARLINGTON, Va., March 26, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- HUNGRY, the nation's leading tech-enabled marketplace for group and business experiences, is reinforcing its long standing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Today, the startup announced that Gaingels, the leading venture investment syndicate in service of the LGBT+ community and its allies, has invested in HUNGRY.
"From day one, we wanted to be different," said HUNGRY CEO Jeff Grass. "We set out to build a company that welcomes different perspectives and authentically embraces people from all walks of life, backgrounds and identities. We're thrilled to join the ranks of other like-minded startups such as Masterclass, philo and Katapult as part of the Gaingels network."
Founded on the values of fairness, inclusion, diversity and equity, HUNGRY proudly boasts a staff makeup of approximately 73 percent more minority workers and approximately 111 percent more minority managers than the average U.S. business*. At present, women make up 52 percent of HUNGRY's overall staffing, which is estimated to be 11 percent better than the average U.S. business*. HUNGRY's chef network is also quite diverse, with women making up approximately 45 percent of the network and minorities accounting for nearly 64 percent of the network.
"We are hyper-focused on improving the lives of everyone we touch with our business, specifically our chefs, our clients, our team, and our communities," Grass added.
HUNGRY will leverage the new capital from its Gaingels investment to improve its hiring and training practices, ensuring the startup's employees are able to develop their skills and execute at the highest level.
"Gaingels is extremely proud of our investment in HUNGRY," said Gaingels Managing Director, Lorenzo Thione. "Our syndicate is committed to identifying, investing in and supporting the best companies who are building inclusive teams and who embrace diversity and equity in leadership at all levels, including LGBT leadership. We recognize and applaud the strategic commitment HUNGRY is making into diversity, fairness and equity, central to building a business that better reflects the reality of its team, customers and stakeholders, and we are excited to help Jeff and team execute on this important mission."
HUNGRY's inclusive culture and business practices are evidenced by the company's ranking on Forbes' "America's Best Startup Employers of 2021" and The Tech Tribune's "Best Tech Startups of 2021." HUNGRY was also named to Fast Company's 2021 list of "Most Innovative Companies" and ranked in the Top 50 of Forward Fooding's "FoodTech 500."
To learn more about HUNGRY, visit the company's website at tryhungry.com.
ABOUT HUNGRY
HUNGRY was founded in 2017 by serial entrepreneurs Eman Pahlavani, Shy Pahlevani and Jeff Grass as a revolutionary platform engaging the $60 billion business and events catering market. The technology-enabled marketplace provides curated experiences to groups and businesses throughout the U.S. via catering, chef pop-ups, snack packs, virtual cooking experiences, and food delivery services.
Notable investors in HUNGRY include Jay-Z's Marcy Venture Partners, Kevin Hart, Usher, Todd Gurley, Bobby Wagner, Ndamukong Suh and celebrity chefs Tom Colicchio and Ming Tsai.
Through its partnerships, HUNGRY has donated more than half a million meals to people in need. The company also promotes environmental waste reduction through its Food Solutions programs.
HUNGRY is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has rapidly growing operations in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston, New York City, Austin and Dallas. For more information, visit http://tryhungry.com.
ABOUT GAINGELS
Gaingels is the leading investment syndicate in support of and representing the LGBTQ community and allies in the venture capital space. With over $190,000,000 deployed into a portfolio of over 300 companies since 2018, Gaingels is also the co-founder of Mathison.io and provides an internal at-cost diverse board member/observer recruitment advisory for our portfolio companies. Gaingels invests in companies with LGBT founders and C-suite leaders at all stages of growth, as well as in other high-growth companies resolved on building more inclusive teams. Gaingels is a founding co-signer of the Diversity Term Sheet Rider Initiative to increase access to venture funding events for non-traditional check writers, and regularly co-invests with select VC leads across a variety of sectors, from technology, to B2B, healthcare and consumer, in competitive and over-subscribed rounds from Seed to Growth/pre-IPO. For more information visit http://www.gaingels.com.
Media Contact
Mary Eva Tredway, Butin Integrated Communications, +1 4043170731, [email protected]
SOURCE HUNGRY
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