There are 25,000 independent distributors in North America that service two-thirds of our food consumption. Big-box distributors cover the remaining third: their focus is mass-produced products and big-chain customers.

Independents are the opposite of that. They are the backbone of our food supply chain. They are your neighborhood restaurant's go-to source for the best ingredients, for exciting new products, and for the full-service value independent restaurants rely on.

We set out to reimagine how technology serves independent distributors. Pepper arms independents with the technology they need to out-execute their competition and thrive in a market with tight margins and ever-increasing customer demands. Over 500 independents are powered by Pepper. Last year sales growth of distributors on Pepper outpaced Sysco, US Foods, and PFG by >80%. 

Today, I’m excited to announce that Pepper has raised $50 million in Series C funding, led by Lead Edge Capital, to accelerate our mission.

Lead Edge has a world-class track record in vertical SaaS—they were early investors in Toast and Procore. They understand that reimagining what’s possible is a requirement when you’re aiming to elevate an entire industry.

We are grateful for the continued support from our existing partners—ICONIQ, Index Ventures, Greylock, Harmony Partners, and Interplay. Their continued conviction validates the leap we’ve made since our Series B: we’ve more than tripled our customer base and revenue and launched marquee products like Sales Hub, Order Agent, and Finance Hub.

Building the End-to-End Platform for Food Distribution

The platform we’ve built at Pepper supports every critical piece of a distributor’s operation—from ordering and sales to marketing and accounting. This funding allows us to invest in more solutions for distributors, faster. 

• Next-gen agentic solutions: We are moving beyond automation into agentic tools like Order Agent and Sales Hub. These products use AI to handle manual, imprecise workflows—like voicemail orders and messy customer emails—that have traditionally acted as a drag on growth.
  
  
• Expanded functionality for core operations: Many of our products are deeply embedded in distributors’ core workflows. We want our customers to always be one step ahead with the best technology out there.
  
  
• Reliable integrations for every tech stack: We believe distributors should be empowered, not constrained, by their systems. We’re pushing the envelope on how integrations are built and maintained so distributors get the right data, all the time.
  
  
• Scaling customer-facing teams: As our customer base grows, we’re continuing to invest in go-to-market and customer success functions so we can maintain a high bar for the customer experience.

The Path Ahead

We believe that a more diverse, reliable, and transparent food system is critical for the future, and it starts with empowering the independent distributor.

This funding is fuel to innovate faster and ensure that the best technology in this industry belongs to the independents. We’re grateful to our customers and partners for all of their support. 

We’re just getting started!