Cartwheel, an on-demand delivery management platform for restaurants and retailers, raised a $1 million seed round led by TenOneTen Ventures with participation from Act One Ventures and Portillo’s Hot Dogs, along with angel investment from additional restaurateurs. The funds will be used for product development, partnership integration and expansion of its Los Angeles-based team. 

Designed to give brands more control over the delivery customer experience, as well as their own delivery business, Cartwheel allows brands to launch self-delivery programs alongside their third-party partners. Its offering includes an easy-to-use driver app, dispatch tools for managers and customer interaction functionality.

“With more than 60 Portillo’s locations nationwide and the highest average unit sales volumes in the fast-casual industry, we have a lot of deliveries to manage. It’s important that our brand is well-represented. Cartwheel enables us to use our team members to deliver our highest-value orders, cross-training our team members so that they can become drivers for our own fleet,” said Portillo’s CEO Michael Osanloo. “Our experience with Cartwheel has been so positive that we invested back in the company so they can further develop services with brands in mind.”

Cartwheel is also partnered with Olo Inc.. To date, Cartwheel has powered deliveries for brands including P.F. Chang’s, Charleys Philly Steaks, Taco del Mar, and more. 

“Digital ordering and delivery have become increasingly crucial to the long-term viability of restaurant brands and they will play an even more prominent role in the future of the industry based on ever-growing consumer demand,” said Noah Glass, Olo’s founder and CEO, who is also a member of the Portillo’s board of directors. “With each restaurant brand comes a unique set of needs and we are proud to work with Cartwheel to offer our shared customers a simplified solution to bolster their direct channels and drive success.”

“Cartwheel got its start a decade ago as one of the most successful delivery restaurants in LA. When we moved into the delivery outsourcing business in 2014, we realized we couldn’t find a powerful last-mile delivery management system with all the features we wanted, so we built it ourselves,” said Alex Vasilkin, co-founder and CEO, Cartwheel.

“The last-mile delivery market opportunity is in the billions, and Cartwheel is well positioned to capitalize,” said Minnie Ingersoll, partner, TenOneTen Ventures. “Having built their solution from the ground up, with establishments in mind, Cartwheel knows its customer and their needs and will transform the delivery experience for businesses, and specialty retailers nationwide.”