Fast-growing virtual restaurant company FoodChéri sells a majority stake to Sodexo

Clipperton acted as sole financial advisor to FoodChéri

  • The transaction marks the first large-scale FoodTech acquisition by a corporate in Europe
  • Sodexo‘s investment will enable FoodChéri to consolidate its strategic positioning as a ‘virtual restaurant’, while pursuing national expansion
  • The partnership with FoodChéri will help Sodexo adapt its corporate catering offer to today’s changing work environment

Paris – January 2018 – European corporate finance firm Clipperton is proud to announce it has acted as sole financial advisor to French food delivery startup FoodChéri in the sale of a majority stake to leading global food services & facilities management company Sodexo. The transaction marks a major milestone in the vibrant European FoodTech space.

Founded in 2015, FoodChéri delivers fresh and healthy meals prepared in-house by professionals to customers across the Paris metropolitan area. As a ‘virtual restaurant’, FoodChéri operates a full-stack model encompassing product sourcing, meal cooking and order delivery. With a healthy, balanced and diversified offer, FoodChéri targets both individuals and companies, over 200 of which now look to the start-up to provide meals for their employees. FoodChéri today employs 70 people and delivers over 12,000 meals every week.

As a world leader in corporate catering, Sodexo will help FoodChéri consolidate its positioning as a virtual canteen. With the support of Sodexo, Foodchéri plans to invest in a new 2,000 m² kitchen to support its expansion beyond Paris. On the other hand, partnering with Foodchéri will allow Sodexo to address small and medium-sized businesses which cannot afford on-premise corporate catering services but want to provide meals to their employees.

Patrick Asdaghi, Co-founder and CEO of Foodchéri, said: “At FoodChéri we strive every day to develop the future of food delivery. We don’t believe people should have to choose between quality, convenience and price and we created our offer to reflect this. Sodexo will help us expand our reach and we’re very proud of their confidence in us.”

Belen Moscoso del Prado, Sodexo’s Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, said: “At Sodexo, we aim to provide a tailored offering to consumers in keeping with their growing demand for meals that are both healthy and environmentally friendly. We believe investing in FoodChéri is a perfect fit with our mission.”

Thomas Neveux, Partner at Clipperton, declared: “FoodChéri is one of the very few players in the European FoodTech ecosystem that have solved the economic equation of food delivery without compromising on quality. We are very proud of having accompanied such a strong team and pleased with the outcome and perspectives of development for FoodChéri and Sodexo, an alliance that we believe will be highly successful.

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Clipperton

About Clipperton

Clipperton is a European independent corporate finance advisory firm exclusively dedicated to the Technology & Internet industries, advising innovative companies on M&A transactions, debt financings and equity offerings. With offices in London, Paris, and Berlin and an international reach, Clipperton is a European leader in Technology financial advisory. Over the past 15 years, the team has successfully completed more than 220 high profile transactions globally. For more details please visit www.clipperton.net