Moonshots Capital Invests in Cartwheel’s $3M Seed Round to Shape the Future of Delivery
The newest addition to the Moonshots Capital Fund II portfolio, Cartwheel, makes it easy for businesses to get their products to customers’ doorsteps. Their sophisticated platform creates a combination of in-house and third party delivery services tailored to individual needs. Cartwheel’s journey started in a space where fast and high quality delivery is key to building customer relationships: restaurants.
Cartwheel’s co-founders Alex Vasilkin and Magdim Metshin recognized the unique challenges of food delivery when they ran the popular ROFL Cafe in Los Angeles in the early 2010s. After crafting solutions that answered their own needs, they offered them to the broader LA restaurant community through their delivery outsourcing business, Gourmet Runner. Dan Zamylin, Cartwheel’s third co-founder and CTO, joined them to create Gourmet Runner’s software.
In 2020, Alex, Dan and Magdim leveraged their experience with Gourmet Runner to evolve the more comprehensive platform capabilities of Cartwheel. The team’s insider savvy was immediately welcomed by big names in their primary industry. Soon after the company’s inception, Cartwheel’s software was implemented by the restaurant chain Portillo, who also invested in their seed round alongside several smaller restaurateurs who joined as angel investors.
With almost a decade of running businesses together, Alex, Dan, and Magdim are powerful team players who continuously prove their leadership mettle. Immediately after Cartwheel’s inception, they began a remarkable track record of scaling their business. Their platform is now being implemented in a growing number of businesses, ranging from small restaurants to major chains like P.F. Chang’s and Potbelly. They made substantial inroads into the existing delivery ecosystem through their channel partnership with Olo, the leading ordering solution for enterprise restaurant chains; and teamed up with DoorDash to provide hybrid delivery service to restaurants in their network.
Despite its strong roots in the food industry, Cartwheel has no intention of stopping there: their flexible solution is gaining traction across other industries, including medical delivery, general courier services, and alcohol.
Cartwheel’s early success was fueled by the initial $1 million seed round led by TenOneTen Ventures in May 2021. Millie Ingersoll and David Waxman of TenOneTen introduced us to Cartwheel, and we were immediately drawn to the Cartwheel team and their mission. We moved quickly to lead the round and are excited to have Chingona Ventures, TenOneTen Ventures, ActOne Ventures, and Pitbull Ventures as co-investors.
Congrats Alex, Magdim, Dan and the entire Cartwheel team on the very successful fundraise. To the moon we go!
Moonshots Capital is a veteran-founded venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups with extraordinary leaders.
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