In less than a decade since its establishment, the business scope and valuation of the food startup Wonder have been rapidly rising.

However, this company has even more radical plans, including launching a subscription service that allows diners to manage their own "restaurants," expanding significantly in Texas, and possibly conducting a initial public offering (IPO).

Wonder was founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur Marc Lore, who claims to "bring together the best restaurants across America in one place." Consumers can place orders for takeout or delivery from its restaurant outlets, which are similar to food plazas, through the Wonder brand app or through third-party platforms, including Grubhub which has now been acquired by Wonder.

Lore to CNBC states: “Wonder is a vertically integrated food technology platform aimed at making high-quality food more accessible.”

In order to achieve this goal, Wonder plans to open stores in cities, suburbs, and rural areas across the United States, with the aim of maintaining prices below the cost of delivering groceries. Thanks to owning Grubhub, customers who place orders using Wonder's own app do not have to pay for delivery fees, and menu prices will not be increased to cover the commission of delivery platforms. In addition, Wonder is automating some kitchen functions, such as the assembly of salads and bowl meals, and plans to soon automate the production of sauces and beverages as well.

Lore said that the company's goal is to achieve complete autonomy in food production and delivery by 2040.

Today, Wonder needs to convince consumers that this platform, which is built on cost savings and more choices, is worth trying, given the fierce competition in the catering industry.

The grand vision of Lore towards Wonder has helped the company raise a total of $3.3 billion in funding to date. Investors include DoorDash, the venture capital departments of Alphabet, and Gwyneth Paltrow. The company's D-round financing completed earlier this year pushed its pre-investment valuation to $9 billion, which is slightly lower than the selling price of the chain sandwich brand Subway two years ago.

Wonder The next investor presentation may take place at the roadshow on IPO, provided that companies in various industries reopen their listing windows in the coming months.

Lore said, "[This mission] is exactly why I want to go public and raise the necessary capital. This way, we can build a company that will be significant for generations to come, and at the same time, we will have a publicly traded currency to facilitate more mergers and acquisitions. However, I cannot discuss a timeline."

Lore's Resume

Lore's expertise lies in e-commerce, not in the catering industry.

He helped to establish the parent company of Diapers.com, and in 2010, sold it to Amazon for $545 million. Just six years later, Walmart acquired his subsequent startup project, Jet.com, for about $3 billion. Lore remained with Walmart until 2021, where it was used to drive the company's e-commerce growth.

Basketball fans may also recognize Lore – he is one of the owners of the Minnesota Timberwolves team. In 2021, he agreed with baseball legend Alex Rodriguez to acquire the team for $1.5 billion, although the transaction was not finally completed until 2025. Rodriguez stated in a statement in August that Lore recently reached an agreement to reduce his investment to a minority stake, “in order to focus on his own business,” referring here to Wonder.

The initial idea for Lore's latest startup project was to use Sprinter food trucks equipped with mobile kitchens to deliver meals to consumers' homes. This truck-based model lasted for about two years, after which Wonder shifted to physical stores, as the latter offered a wider range of dishes and allowed for cost reduction.

The successful track record of Lore has helped him win the trust of investors in Wonder.

The managing partner of the venture capital department, GV, Dave Munichiello, said, "I often joke in GV that I invest in enterprise software, AI, as well as any projects that Marc Lore actively operates as CEO." I have known Lore since the Diapers.com era and have invested in Jet.com through GV.

Lore In my opinion, it is his vision that brought in billions of dollars in financing for Wonder.

He said, "Everyone needs to eat." He also stated, "From the perspective of AI, it is defensive in nature."

Wonder has spent over $1 billion on mergers and acquisitions, not including those transactions with undisclosed financial details. The company has acquired Grubhub, distribution and logistics service provider Relay, meal kit provider Blue Apron, as well as several popular dining concepts in New York, all at considerable costs.

But Lore says that if Wonder can sell high-quality food at an affordable price, especially in suburban and rural areas where dining options are limited and there are only fast-food restaurants and gas stations, it would have a “huge total addressable market.”

Wonder Expanding in Texas

Over the past three years, from Virginia to Massachusetts, 170 Wonder stores have opened. The company plans to enter Texas for the first time next year, with the goal of opening at least 100 stores in that state by the end of 2027.

Wonder First, the food is prepared in the central kitchen and then transported to various stores. Employees there then open the packages, cook the food, and complete the preparation of the dishes. All of their stores use electricity instead of gas and do not require an exhaust system. Therefore, Wonder can enter new locations more quickly and face fewer obstacles regarding renovation and approval processes.

These stores offer dishes from over 20 “restaurants,” including Dabba Indian Kitchen, Tejas Barbecue, and Pop Salad. Chefs such as Bobby Flay, Michael Symon, and Marcus Samuelsson receive upfront payments and equity in Wonder to allow the company to use their names to create certain concepts for the brands. Recently added brands also include Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken and Salt Hank, which are acquired brands that already have a stable customer base.

Due to a large number of options under one roof, Wonder has been compared to ghost and kitchen (Ghost Kitchens). The latter was once very popular, but its popularity quickly faded after the decline in takeout orders during the pandemic. Companies like Ghost Kitchens, which were once seen as potential disruptors in the food service industry, such as Kitchen United, have applied for bankruptcy protection and are gradually shutting down their operations.

Lore does not agree with this analogy.

He said, "You can see that physical stores have a front-area section. During lunchtime, you'll see people sitting there having their meals, so in that regard, it's not 'ghost'. But I think that also lies in the fact that we are vertically integrated."

Wonder has never promoted itself as a "ghost kitchen"; instead, it initially referred to itself as a "new type of gourmet plaza" or a "modern food center," and only later rebranded itself as a "vertically integrated food technology platform."

Starting from November 17th, the company plans to launch its next product, Wonder Create. Internet celebrities, entrepreneurs, and brands will only need to pay $10 per month to open their own "restaurants" within Wonder stores and receive a portion of the revenue from orders. Artificial intelligence will assist them in building their brands, including choosing names, logos, setting prices, and creating menus.

Lore said, "It can be a restaurant for you and your friends, or it can be an internet-famous restaurant with a base of fans."

He hopes that Wonder Create can make restaurant management more democratic – without the need for capital, high indirect costs, or kitchen operation supervision. In the future, this platform will be open to the public, and users will be able to decide the menu based on the ingredient reserves of Wonder.

In addition to Wonder Create, the company also uses AI in another project. Its proprietary AI platform MEL can utilize customers' health information, such as data from Oura ring or Whoop trackers, and even blood biomarkers, to prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner for users.

MEL is not currently available to Wonder customers, however, Lore will use AI to recommend their own meals, such as the chicken pancake they had for breakfast on a certain Tuesday in October.

Quality Issues

Although Wonder has won the favor of venture capitalists, the battle to win over diners' appetites and wallets is much more difficult.

Consumers with limited budgets are dining out less frequently, and they have become more picky when they do so. Although takeaway food is still more popular than before the pandemic, consumers have ordered fewer deliveries compared to the peak of the pandemic. Delivery fees and high menu prices—后者 are used to offset the commissions that restaurants pay to the platforms—make takeaway more expensive than dining in-person.

In addition, some consumers are also skeptical about Wonder itself. Posts on social media criticize the company's food quality as well as its funding support from venture capital.

At the end of 2025, Amir Ings, a 27-year-old resident of Philadelphia, commented on TikTok about three corn cakes he ordered from Wonder and said, "It's okay, but just average." He said, "I had low expectations to begin with – it wasn't as bad as I imagined, but still not that great. And I paid about $16 for them, when they really shouldn't have cost more than $8 at most."

Lore told CNBC that Wonder receives thousands of customer reviews every day, where customers rate the taste, temperature, and portion size of the orders on a scale from 1 to 10. Munichiello said that at the beginning of Wonder's board meetings, taste ratings are also discussed first.

Lore said, "Our focus on food quality is almost obsessive... We will continue to iterate on those dishes with lower ratings. Looking at the past 12 months, both our taste ratings and Google evaluations have improved." He also said, "I indeed expect that as we scale up, food quality will continue to improve, but that doesn't always happen."

Despite the average reviews on social media, Wonder still has its fans. According to the transaction data of Indagari, Wonder's weighted average retention rate – that is, the likelihood of customers placing another order – as well as customer lifetime value – which refers to the total amount a customer spends over time – are both higher than those of Cava and Sweetgreen.

In addition, Wonder has also achieved success in the most competitive catering markets across the United States.

Munichiello said, "They've managed to make this company function very well in New York, one of the hardest places in the United States to implement such a model. There are just too many options in New York."

In the end, Wonder aims to win over consumers across the United States as well as investors in the public market.

In March this year, the company hired Worldpay, a former payment processor, and its executive Gabrielle Scheibe Rabinovitch to take on the role of Chief Financial Officer in preparation for going public.

Lore refused to comment on the timing of potential IPO to CNBC, although he previously told Fortune that the company would be "ready and prepared for listing by the beginning of next year."

Since the acquisition of Blue Apron and Grubhub, Wonder has been in a state of financial loss, as previously reported by The Information. The company plans to reduce meal prices by increasing automation and drone delivery. In the long run, this plan may lower costs, but laying the foundation is not cheap.

In recent years, investors' tolerance for startups that solely pursue growth while neglecting profitability has declined, said Avery Marquez, the director of investment strategy at Renaissance Capital. In order to attract investors, loss-making companies must prove that they are on their way to becoming profitable—or demonstrate that growth will continue for a long time after IPO.