Wonder's $9 Billion Bet: Marc Lore Plots Texas, AI Kitchens and an IPO

Wonder closed its Series D earlier this year at a $9 billion pre-money valuation — just under what Subway sold for two years ago — and Marc Lore is already lining up the next act: Texas, automation and a potential IPO.

The company Lore founded in 2018 has raised $3.3 billion total from investors including DoorDash, Alphabet's venture arm GV and Gwyneth Paltrow. It now runs 170 storefronts from Virginia to Massachusetts, with at least 100 Texas locations targeted by the end of 2027. And starting Nov. 17, anyone can pay $10 a month to launch their own "restaurant" inside a Wonder location.

"Wonder is a vertically integrated food technology platform to make great food more accessible," Lore told CNBC.

What does Wonder actually sell?

The pitch is choice plus price. Wonder's food-hall-style locations serve items from more than two dozen "restaurants" — Dabba Indian Kitchen, Tejas Barbecue, Pop Salad — ordered via the Wonder app or third-party platforms. Wonder owns Grubhub, so app customers skip delivery fees, and menu prices aren't inflated to cover platform commissions. Lore says he wants prices below the cost of delivered groceries.

The famous names carry real economics. Celebrity chefs including Bobby Flay, Michael Symon and Marcus Samuelsson receive up-front payments and equity in Wonder to license their names. Recent acquisitions like Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken and Salt Hank's add brands with existing followings.

Operationally, food is prepped at commissary kitchens and finished on-site. All storefronts are electric — no gas, no venting — which cuts renovation costs and red tape when Wonder enters a new space.

Is this just a ghost kitchen with better PR?

Investors and skeptics keep making the comparison. Ghost kitchen players like Kitchen United sought bankruptcy protection as post-Covid delivery orders fell. Lore pushes back.

"You can see there's a front of house [in the] brick and mortar," he said. "You'll see people at lunchtime, sitting there enjoying lunch, so it's not ghost-y in that way. But I think it's also just in the fact that we're vertically integrated."

Wonder has spent more than $1 billion on disclosed acquisitions alone: Grubhub, logistics provider Relay, Blue Apron and a string of New York restaurant concepts. Lore argues automation — salad and bowl assembly now, sauces and beverages soon — plus drone delivery will push meal prices down over time. His stated goal: fully autonomous food preparation and delivery by 2040.

What does Wonder Create change for entrepreneurs?

Starting Nov. 17, influencers, entrepreneurs and brands pay $10 a month to run a "restaurant" out of a Wonder location and take a share of order revenue. AI builds the brand — name, logo, pricing and recipes — and menus draw on Wonder's pantry. Lore frames it as restaurant ownership minus the capital, overhead and kitchen oversight.

"It could be a restaurant for you and your friends, or you could be an influencer that has a following," he said.

Wonder is leaning on AI elsewhere too. MEL, a proprietary platform, can use data from an Oura ring, Whoop tracker or blood biomarkers to plan a user's meals. It's not customer-facing yet.

The credibility gap

Social media skepticism is real. "It's OK, but it's just average," Amir Ings, 27, of Philadelphia, said in a TikTok reviewing a $16 three-taco order. "My expectations were already in the gutter — it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it's still not great."

Lore's answer is measurement. Wonder collects thousands of daily customer reviews rating taste, temperature and portion on a 1-to-10 scale, and opens board meetings with taste scores, GV's Dave Munichiello said. "We're maniacally focused on food quality... our taste scores have improved, our Google reviews have improved," Lore said. "I do expect food quality to improve as we scale, which is not always the case."

The retention data is on his side. Per transaction data from Indagari, Wonder beats Cava and Sweetgreen on both weighted average retention rate and customer lifetime value.

The road to public markets

Lore's exit record buys patience: Amazon bought Diapers.com's parent for $545 million in 2010, Walmart paid about $3 billion for Jet.com in 2016. "I joke around at GV that I do enterprise software investing, AI investing and anything that Marc Lore is running as an active CEO," Munichiello said.

But Wonder has operated at a loss since buying Blue Apron and Grubhub, The Information reported. In March it hired Gabrielle Rabinovitch, formerly of Worldpay, as CFO. Lore won't discuss IPO timing, though he told Fortune the company will be "ready and prepared to go public early next year." With investors now demanding a path to profitability — Renaissance Capital's Avery Marquez notes unprofitable companies must show profits are coming or growth will endure — that CFO hire may matter more than the taste scores.