Cheetah Technologies Leans Into Scaling Their AI-Enabled Commerce Platform Nationwide By Selling Physical Distribution Business to Palo Alto Foods

The company will begin rolling out its AI-enabled commerce platform, offering distributors and restaurants tools to enhance purchasing efficiency, analytics, and profitability.

SAN FRANCISCO, June 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Cheetah Technologies, a restaurant and food distribution commerce platform, announced today the sale of their physical distribution business based in Pleasanton, CA, to Paul Jensen, 2nd generation owner of Palo Alto Foods. The company will be focused on bringing the technology that allowed them to scale their distribution business to the entire industry. With its features like digital product catalogs, personalized insights and recommendations, integrated payment processing, routing management, automated inventory tracking through point-of-sale integration and in-app support, the platform drastically increases profitability and efficiency of distributors, while lowering the carbon footprint.

“We built our restaurant application and distribution commerce platform to support our distribution business,” said Kim Spalding, CEO of Cheetah. “We saw firsthand how our platform upleveled our own customer experience and drove unprecedented NPS scores – 58 – in an industry that often averages NPS scores around 10. Over the last decade, the front of house of this industry has been digitized, while the back of house has remained unchanged. The food supply space, which is the largest portion of restaurant back of house, is a $400B opportunity. This is a larger opportunity than restaurant front of house which has produced more than $70B in market cap for disruptive start-ups. We’re going to seize that opportunity.”

Spalding, who had an illustrious career at Google, Starbucks, & McKinsey, joined the company in 2023 and with the support of the board, pivoted to commercializing their technology. She recently closed on an additional $14 million in funding and focused on vertical SaaS for the restaurant supply. “I’m excited to be scaling our AI-enabled distributor platform,” said Spalding. “Our decision to sell our physical distribution business to Paul Jensen was an easy one, as he’s a strong operator and trusted partner. We are now focused on scaling our platform into this exciting market and building expansions that will digitize additional workflows for distributors, restaurants and manufacturers.”

Paul Jensen, CEO of Palo Alto Foods, considered a pioneer in the adoption and celebration of organic products, said, “This is the best of both worlds. I get to continue to do what I have loved my entire career: helping independent restaurants succeed, but now with an even greater platform. With their new focus, Cheetah’s technology won’t just be an irreplaceable asset for my business, but will be an absolute game-changer for the entire foodservice industry.”

Palo Alto Foods is a business Jensen’s father started more than 40 years ago and began as a humble seller of local eggs. Jensen added, “As kids, my brother Eric and I worked side by side with him before eventually taking over the company. I can remember the landscape of Silicon Valley in a very different way. We’ve been fortunate to successfully grow with our customers, such as Google, Pixar, and Stanford Hospital, over the years. We are ecstatic about taking our business to the next level with this deal.”

The last shipment out of the Cheetah warehouse will be its software.

Distributors interested in more information please contact Cheetah Technologies’ Co-Founder Christopher Elliott, [email protected]

About Cheetah

Cheetah launched the first restaurant supply app, providing the simplest, most affordable way for restaurants to get their daily supplies. Cheetah’s technology was developed to solve the complex issues facing foodservice distribution including supply chain management, logistics optimization, data analytics, and purchasing algorithms which enhance efficiency and profitability for every partner in the channel. Proprietary solutions connect multiple supply-side systems with in-house sales software bringing a lean, efficient, and reliable approach to the foodservice ecosystem. This software reduces the time & labor needed to place & process orders while minimizing food waste.

Cheetah is founded and run by technology industry veterans, engineers, data scientists, supply chain and logistics experts, and innovators who have come together to help restaurateurs, distributors, and manufacturers thrive.

For more information on Cheetah, please contact [email protected]

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