Elior acquires food delivery startup Nestor

Corporate catering company Elior has acquired French startup Nestor for an undisclosed amount. Nestor originally started with a simple idea to differentiate itself from food delivery giants, such as Deliveroo, Uber Eats and others.

Every day, the startup offered a single menu for lunch. If you liked what was on the menu, you could order and get delivered 10 to 20 minutes later. By offering a single menu, a delivery person could deliver several clients in a single ride. Similarly, by managing its own kitchen, Nestor could improve its margins as it didn’t have to pay third-party restaurants.

Since I first covered Nestor in 2016, the company has been capital efficient and mostly focused on this unique product offering. Elior says that Nestor managed to reach 10,000 meals per week.

Over the past few months, Nestor has tried to launch new offers. For instance, companies can switch to Nestor for their canteens. The startup delivers meals in fridges directly. It reminds me of Foodles, another French startup focused on canteen-like services.

Nestor can also deliver individually packed lunches in case you are spending the day with some clients for a big meeting. Popchef has also pivoted to focus more on that segment.

Following the acquisition, Nestor is going to focus more and more on the B2B market. While Elior is working with big companies in glass towers, it has been quite hard to convince small and medium companies to open a canteen in the office.

The sales pitch could be summed up in two sentences. Nestor clients don’t need to have their own kitchen as everything is prepared in advance. And employees don’t have to browse Deliveroo at lunch time to find something that isn’t a burger or a pizza.