Wholeshare

Wholeshare operated an e-commerce platform designed to facilitate group purchasing of groceries, with a focus on natural and organic products. The company was founded in 2012 by Matt Hatoun, Miriam Goldberg, and Peter Woo, three computer science graduates from Brown University. Their goal was to modernize the traditional food co-op and buying club model for the digital age, particularly aiming to serve consumers in regions with limited access to stores like Whole Foods.

The business model centered on aggregating individual orders into a single large order, allowing consumers to bypass retail markups and purchase goods at wholesale prices. Wholeshare's platform functioned as both a marketplace for discovering local buying groups and an online ordering system that handled the complexities of group payments and order aggregation. This provided a streamlined experience for consumers while presenting the group as a single, manageable client to wholesale distributors. The company's revenue was generated by adding a markup to the wholesale prices and receiving a percentage from distributors for bringing them new business.

The platform was structured around group coordinators who managed the local delivery and distribution. These coordinators received a 5% fee from Wholeshare, which could be used as a discount on their own purchases, and they could also charge their group members an additional fee to cover expenses. In 2015, the company secured $1.8 million in a seed funding round from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, and 500 Startups. On August 29, 2016, Wholeshare was acquired by Direct Eats, an online retailer of natural and organic foods, for an undisclosed amount.

Keywords: group purchasing, collective buying, food co-op, wholesale groceries, online marketplace, grocery savings, natural foods, organic food distribution, e-commerce platform, food buying club, direct-to-consumer food, bulk buying, local food distribution, food supply chain, Andreessen Horowitz, social commerce, regional food systems, grocery delivery, sustainable food, specialty foods