Ghost Financial raises $2.5 million in early stage funding

Ghost Financial, a financial services startup, announced Tuesday (April 5) announced It has raised $2.5 million from pre-seed investors to continue developing its bank-style Ghost Kitchen products.

Ghost kitchens are restaurants that serve customers through food delivery apps. According to the press release, Ghost Financial offers ghost kitchen operators help with insurance, loans, credit cards and other various financial products.

These ghost kitchens grew in popularity during the pandemic as food delivery became ubiquitous while many people were stuck indoors during the 2020 quarantine months.

Focused only on delivery, these kitchens typically buy their inventory with cash, checks, or debit cards rather than credit — which, according to John Meyer, Ghost Financial’s founder and CEO, can limit their growth.

“What seems to be missing is a very clear banking and financial layer to support the … ghost kitchen industry,” Meyer said, according to a Reuters report Tuesday. He added that while the popularity started during the pandemic, it appears to be an ongoing venture that isn’t slowing down.

The company is based in Austin, Texas. Pre-seed investors include HOF Capital, 305 Ventures, Hustle Fund and Active Capital, among others.

In other news related to the burgeoning sector, PYMNTS wrote that Deliveroo was planning to trial its Deliveroo Hop fast grocery service with supermarket chain Waitrose in February.

Continue reading: Deliveroo tests fast grocery delivery in London

To provide this service, Waitrose opened a delivery only store in Bermondsey, London. The report noted that delivery times would be cut to about 10 minutes, or half the time of a usual delivery, for those who live near the store.

Waitrose has an existing partnership with Deliveroo and Deliveroo uses grocery delivery to scale and justify its model. At the time, Adam Miller, Deliveroo’s chief financial officer, said the company’s goal was to give a sense of “the relative unit economics of groceries versus restaurants — not quite as good as restaurant economics.”

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Above: Patient portals are now a must for healthcare providers – so much so that 61% of patients interested in using the tools say they would switch to a healthcare provider that offers one. For Accessing Healthcare: Easing Digital Frictions In The Patient Journey, a collaboration between PYMNTS and Experian Health, PYMNTS surveyed 2,333 consumers to learn how healthcare providers can alleviate digital pain points to improve patient care and satisfaction.

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