What Proper Food does

Proper Food (legally Properfood LLC) is a privately-held, founder-owned fast-casual grab-and-go food and beverage company founded in 2013 and headquartered at 350 Townsend St, San Francisco. The company cooks a seasonal menu of sandwiches, salads, soups, and chef's specials from scratch each morning and sells them through 18 currently operating company-owned storefronts across California (primarily the San Francisco Bay Area, including a SFO Terminal 1 location) and New York City (Midtown Manhattan), with a 19th location at JFK International Airport's New Terminal One scheduled to open in October 2026.

The core retail offering is supplemented by a B2B suite including corporate catering, recurring Meal Plans for subsidized employee programs, and 'Proper Fridge' unattended smart-fridge installations inside employer offices and buildings. Distribution is extended to NYC retail locations via a wholesale program and to consumers' homes via the 'Proper@Home' delivery service fulfilled by partner Bentocart. The customer-facing technology stack is a WCAG 2.1 AA-targeted website (order.properfood.com), native iOS and Android apps, and the Proper Rewards loyalty platform (2 points per $1 spent, VIP at 200 points, Chef's Table at 800 points, with a Points Shop).

The business model is primarily transactional retail (walk-in and online pickup) with secondary recurring-revenue lines (Meal Plans, Proper Fridge) and event-based catering revenue. Pricing is not publicly disclosed, but a $100 delivery minimum applies to catering and Meal Plan orders. The company is founder-owned (Howard and Dana Bloom as Owners; Executive Chef Juan Muñoz leads the culinary program), has raised approximately $9.6M cumulatively across five disclosed exempt-offering rounds from 2017 through 2021, and operates with 101-250 employees.

Name

Proper Food

Legal name

Properfood LLC

Website

https://properfood.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Proper Food operates 18 company-owned grab-and-go storefronts across California and New York, plus B2B catering, Proper Fridge office installations, Meal Plans, and Proper@Home delivery, serving urban office workers, corporate clients, and airport travelers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Fast-casual grab-and-go food services

NAICS

Limited-Service Restaurants (722513)

SIC

Retail-Eating Places (5812)

akta.pro primary industry

Freshly Made Grab-and-Go (Sandwiches, Wraps, Salads) (CRAHAKAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Prepared Meal Subscriptions (Chef-Prepared, Recurring) (CRAHAJAD)

Keywords

• Grab-and-go food
• Fast-casual dining
• Corporate catering
• Office meal programs
• Smart office fridges

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices20 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Supply Chain, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Retail storefront sales: Walk-in/online pickup transactions at 18 company-owned grab-and-go storefronts across California and New York; menu evolves seasonally.
2. Online ordering (DTC e-commerce): Direct online ordering via order.properfood.com and iOS/Android apps for pickup, delivery, and catering (delivery minimum $100).
3. Corporate catering: B2B catering for office meetings, conferences, and gatherings: individually packaged, healthy meals ordered via online catering flow or through direct contact.
4. Proper Fridge office subscription: Recurring/managed service: smart fridges installed in offices or buildings, kept chock-full of scratch-made meals, snacks and beverages; 24/7 credit-card purchase by employees, optional employer subsidization.
5. Office Meal Plans: Personalized rotating daily/weekly menu plans delivered to offices, with delivery minimum of $100, designed for fully subsidized employee meal programs.
6. Wholesale to retail (NYC only): Distribution of fresh, on-the-go Proper meals to third-party retail locations in NYC (brochure available via Mailchimp link).
7. Gift cards: Gift cards usable in-store and online (issued and managed via properfood.digitalgiftcardmanager.com).

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels8 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Proper Food operates a network of company-owned grab-and-go retail storefronts serving scratch-made sandwiches, salads, soups and chef's specials, complemented by B2B catering, Proper Fridge in-office micro-markets, subscription Meal Plans, NYC wholesale distribution, and home delivery (Proper@Home) via BentoCart.

Product overview

Proper Food operates a single integrated brand spanning a physical retail and B2B food platform rather than a discrete software platform. The core offering is the "Proper Food" grab-and-go takeaway menu of scratch-made sandwiches, salads, soups, and chef's specials, sold through retail storefronts in California and New York and accessed via the order.properfood.com online ordering site and the Proper Food mobile app. Built around that core are several B2B modules: Proper Food Catering (event/group meals), Proper Fridge (unattended office micro-markets), Meal Plans (subsidized corporate subscriptions), and Wholesale (retail distribution, NYC only). Customer engagement is anchored by the Proper Rewards loyalty program (with VIP and Chef's Table tiers, redeemable in-app and online), the Proper@Home home delivery service (fulfilled by BentoCart), and Proper Food Gift Cards. The whole ecosystem is wrapped in a WCAG 2.1 AA-targeted accessible website and ordering experience.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Proper@Home: Proper Food's delivery-only home delivery service, operated in partnership with Bentocart; available for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday delivery with orders placed by 2pm the day prior.
• Proper Fridge

Products and services

• Proper Food Grab-and-Go Takeaway Core retail offering of scratch-made seasonal menu items including sandwiches, salads, soups, breakfast items, snacks, and chef's specials. Packaged and sold at physical storefronts in San Francisco financial district, Midtown Manhattan, SFO Terminal 1, with in-store pickup and online order-ahead available.
• Proper Food Catering B2B catering service providing individually packaged, scratch-made meals for meetings, conferences, and gatherings of any size. Available in San Francisco and New York with a $100 delivery minimum; orders are placed online via catering request form.
• Proper Fridge Smart, unattended office and building micro-market fridges stocked with Proper Food scratch-made meals, snacks, and beverages. Employees purchase 24/7 via credit card swipe; employers may opt to partly or fully subsidize employee purchases.
• Meal Plans Corporate meal subscription offering a personalized rotating daily or weekly menu with multiple daily options for employees. Individually packaged scratch-made meals are delivered to the office for the subscribing company.
• Proper Food Wholesale B2B wholesale distribution of Proper Food's fresh, on-the-go meals to retail locations. Available only in New York City; wholesale brochure available on request.
• Proper Rewards Loyalty Program Customer loyalty program awarding 2 points per $1 spent, with VIP membership at 200 points and Chef's Table membership at 800 points, and an integrated points shop to redeem food-based rewards. Relaunched in July 2025.
• Proper@Home Home Delivery Home delivery service for Proper Food meals, fulfilled in partnership with BentoCart. Delivery available Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
• Proper Food Mobile App Native mobile app for iOS and Android that enables account login, online ordering, Proper Rewards point accumulation, QR-code-based identity at checkout, and redemption of points in the points shop.
• Proper Food Gift Cards Digital gift cards redeemable in-store and online at properfood.com, available in preset and custom amounts.

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability4 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• BentocartcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorThird-party delivery partner for the Proper@Home service. Bentocart delivers Proper Food meals to customers' doorsteps on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, with orders placed by 2pm the day prior.
• WhitespectreminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerListed as the 'Author' on Proper Food's individual location and category posts on properfood.com, indicating Whitespectre is the agency/contractor publishing and maintaining the site.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Sweetgreen: Largest U.S. healthy fast-casual chain, public company, focused on salads, bowls, and warm plates made from scratch. Most directly comparable on product (healthy grab-and-go), customer (urban office workers), and digital (mobile app + loyalty), but at vastly larger scale and capital base.
• CAVA Group: Public fast-casual Mediterranean chain. Directly comparable on the 'healthy, premium, made-fresh' positioning, urban office-worker targeting, and B2B catering; competes head-to-head for the same customer wallet share in dense metro areas.
• Dig Inn: East Coast fast-casual 'farm-to-counter' concept serving bowls and plates with rotating seasonal menus. Closest peer on the office-lunch and B2B catering model in NYC; comparable on scratch cooking and ingredient-quality messaging.
• Pret a Manger: Global grab-and-go sandwich/salad chain with strong commuter and office-tower presence. Directly comparable on the grab-and-go format, in-tower locations, and airport presence; well-funded global competitor.
• Chop't Creative Salad Company: NYC-founded fast-casual salad chain with strong Manhattan office-worker customer base. Closely comparable on urban lunch occasion, location strategy, and price point, though Chop't's product is narrower (salad-only).
• Mixt: San Francisco-based healthy fast-casual salad chain. Direct geographic and product peer, competing for the same Bay Area office-lunch customer; comparable on premium ingredients and chef-driven menu.
• Souvla: San Francisco-based fast-casual Greek sandwich/salad concept. Comparable on Bay Area office-lunch positioning, chef-driven menu, and direct-to-consumer ordering; more limited menu breadth.
• Tossed: Healthy fast-casual salad/wrap chain with a corporate-catering program. Comparable on the office-lunch B2C model and corporate catering B2B model; smaller scale than Sweetgreen/CAVA.

Broad incumbents

• ezCater: Largest U.S. corporate-catering marketplace, aggregating thousands of restaurants for office meals. Not a direct restaurant competitor but a channel competitor: it captures corporate catering demand that Proper Food's catering line targets, and also serves as a distribution channel for restaurants.

Emerging players

• Fooda: B2B platform that sets up recurring office pop-up lunches and permanent in-office food programs with local restaurant partners. Direct competitor to Proper Food's Meal Plans and Proper Fridge corporate offerings in the office-meal subscription category.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/eatproper
• Facebookfacebook.com/eatproper
• Instagraminstagram.com/eatproper
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/proper-food

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Proper Food