Slice, an NYC startup helping independent pizzerias build their businesses online, announced Wednesday it has raised another $40 million in Series D funding. The round was led by Cross Creek, with participation from KKR, GGV Capital and Primary Ventures. The firm 01 Advisors, led by a prominent pair of Twitter former executives, also participated.
“While we weren’t actively fundraising, this was predominantly an insider-led round and an opportunity to bring in Twitter’s former CEO and COO, Adam Bain and Dick Costolo, as investors and advisors,” Slice’s founder and CEO Ilir Sela told Built In via email. “Slice has an impressive track record for investing in the success of SMBs and will use this round to accelerate growth and continue vertical integration for small businesses.”
Founded in 2010, Slice has created an app and website that lets small pizzerias fulfill online orders. It also provides tools to help them build their own websites, run marketing campaigns and improve their search engine optimization, all in an effort to keep local businesses thriving by offering them the same resources large pizza franchises use. All told, Slice claims to have saved the shops in its network more than $250 million total compared to those that used “predatory” third-party delivery apps.
“Slice has emerged as the leader in powering these types of small businesses that have been serving communities for decades,” Bain said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Ilir and the incredible team at Slice to marry our significant operating and business-scaling experience with Slice’s focus on enabling economic growth in this category.”
The last time Built In caught up with Slice was when it announced a $43 million Series C last May. At the time, the company was working with 12,000 pizzerias across all 50 states. Since then, that number has grown to 15,000 (more than double the U.S. footprint of Domino’s), and Sela says the company is on track to surpass $1 billion in gross merchandise value this year.
Slice has also launched a new point-of-sale system for pizzerias called Slice Register and a cross-pizzeria loyalty program called Slice Rewards, which the company says is the largest program of its kind in the country.
Now, with $40 million of fresh funding, the company plans to continue innovating its product and investing in “vertical solutions” for its growing network of shops. It also plans to double down on Slice Accelerate, an ongoing program inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic that provides select pizzerias with $15,000 worth of tech and services.
“Slice has a long-term growth plan centered around the principle of amplifying the scale and reach of small businesses/independent pizzerias,” Sela said. “There’s momentum to keep growing and this round further validates that Slice is in an all-time position of strength and poised for economic success.”
