Wonder — the food-delivery startup that just got a $100 million investment from Nestle — is dangling unusual incentives for investors because it scrambles to lift even more money, The Post has learned.
The corporate headed by billionaire Marc Lore, who previously made a bundle founding Diapers.com and Jet.com, is offering deep discounts to investors who buy convertible shares in a deal valuing the corporate at $3.5 billion — the identical valuation Wonder fetched when it last raised money in June 2022, sources said.
Under terms of the brand new offer, investors who buy the securities now will probably be granted the choice of converting them into stock at a 50% discount to the corporate’s valuation during its next fund-raising round, in accordance with sources briefed on the talks.
Wonder is telling investors it believes it might achieve a valuation between $4.5 billion and $5 billion during that next round, the sources said, although the corporate hasn’t provided a timeline, a source said.
Wonder and Lore declined to comment.
One investor who was pitched on the deal passed on the offer, saying it appeared “pretty desperate” and likening it to a “down round” when an organization is forced to lower its previous valuation to lift money.
Earlier this week, Wonder confirmed that it received a $100 million investment from Nestle. Wonder also has entered a strategic partnership with the food giant to sell high-tech kitchen equipment and pre-prepared food ingredients to businesses reminiscent of hotels, hospitals and sports arenas, CNBC reported.
The $100 million investment was described as a “money infusion,” with Lore adding that the cash would help Wonder scale its business.
Nestle will begin offering Wonder’s kitchen equipment to its food-service clients.
In late September, Lore’s company announced it was buying meal-kit company Blue Apron for $103 million.
Lore said the deal would help Wonder achieve its goal of making a “super-app” for high-end food delivery.
Initially, Wonder had planned to create a nationwide network of food trucks with menus inspired by famous chefs reminiscent of Bobby Flay and Marcus Samuelsson.
The corporate had abandoned those plans by last January — and laid off a whole lot of staff — as a part of a shift toward a more traditional, cost-effective food delivery business model using brick-and-mortar restaurants.
Lore recently told the trade publication Restaurant Business that Wonder’s three energetic locations on the time weren’t yet profitable, but were pacing to generate nearly $4 million in sales this 12 months.
Wonder plans to have 10 stores open by the top of the 12 months.
Lore boldly asserted that as many as 7,000 locations could eventually exist nationwide.
In September, Wonder lost its COO Stephen Goldstein, who left the role after lower than one 12 months on the job.
As The Post exclusively reported on the time, Goldstein has taken a recent gig as president of Kernel, the plant-based automated fast-food startup led by Chipotle founder Steve Ells.
Lore had just taken steps to construct out Wonder’s leadership team, adding ex-Sweetgreen marketing chief Daniel Shlossman as marketing chief in May and former Blackstone executive Kelley Morrell as its CFO in June, in accordance with the Wall Street Journal.
Elsewhere, Minnesota Timberwolves Owner Glen Taylor said in October he believed Lore and Alex Rodriguez were pushing back their deadline to extend their ownership of the team from 40 percent to 60 percent from December to early next 12 months.
He said he had been assured that they had the cash.