Fantuan Acquires Chowbus Delivery Business After $40 Million Series C

This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on January 28, 2024.

On January 24, food delivery and local services platform Fantuan announced that it had acquired Chowbus's delivery business. Chowbus will focus on developing its POS and restaurant SaaS business.

The two companies said they will form a strategic partnership, combining restaurant resources and operating strengths to improve delivery selection and user experience, while offering broader services to restaurant merchants.

Fantuan's Position

Founded in Vancouver, Canada in 2014, Fantuan now covers more than 60 cities across the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

The company says its delivery business has held the top share in the North American Chinese food delivery market for years. Beyond delivery, Fantuan has also been expanding into local services such as fresh grocery delivery and in-store group-buying.

In December 2023, Fantuan announced completion of a $40 million Series C financing round. The company said it would use the capital to deepen its position in overseas Asian food delivery and build out services for overseas Chinese communities.

Chowbus Shifts Toward Restaurant SaaS

Chowbus was founded in Chicago in 2016. Its delivery business expanded quickly in 2020 to more than 20 U.S. cities.

In 2022, while its delivery business was fully profitable, Chowbus launched restaurant management and POS services. Within one year, the business had onboarded more than 1,000 restaurants, positioning Chowbus as one of the fastest-growing POS companies in North America.

Across 2022 and 2023, Chowbus raised a total of $40 million from investors including Prysm and Celtic Asia, among other North American funds. Its stated goal is to build a one-stop solution for restaurant operators.

Management Comments

Fantuan founder and CEO Randy Wu said the acquisition marks closer cooperation between Fantuan and Chowbus, with resource integration and optimization across users, merchants, and riders. He said the deal would further strengthen Fantuan's leading share in North American Asian food delivery.

Wu also said the two companies would work together to promote Asian food culture in North America, offer consumers more food choices and better service, and support Asian-owned restaurants as well as small and midsize merchants with a more complete merchant-service loop.

Chowbus founder and CEO Linxin Wen said the company's original vision was to help North American restaurants, especially immigrant-owned restaurants, which often need more support with technology and marketing. He said Chowbus began with delivery and then developed its own restaurant SaaS and POS system in order to support restaurants more comprehensively.

As Chowbus's restaurant SaaS business grows quickly, Wen said the company wants to focus on one area and build better products for more merchants. He said the Fantuan partnership should allow both companies to provide stronger services across delivery, SaaS, POS, and other merchant needs.

Market Context

According to market research cited in the article, the United States has more than 120,000 Asian restaurants, with Chinese restaurants accounting for 71% of that total. The Asian foodservice market is expected to exceed $230 billion by 2030.

Asian cuisine is highly popular in North America, but Asian restaurant operators also face challenges tied to culture, language, and market access. Fantuan and Chowbus both position themselves as platforms built specifically for Asian restaurant merchants, and the companies said they will work together to build an Asian foodservice ecosystem.

The article frames the deal as part of a broader consolidation among Chinese-language delivery platforms in North America. After Fantuan's acquisition of Chowbus's delivery business, its largest Chinese delivery-platform competitor in North America becomes HungryPanda.

It also compares the pattern to HungryPanda's acquisition-led expansion in Australia and New Zealand, including prior acquisitions of Australia's EASI and New Zealand's Zhangshang New Zealand.

More broadly, the article argues that overseas delivery platforms, from large players such as DoorDash and Uber Eats to Fantuan and HungryPanda, have followed a Meituan-style path: starting with meal delivery, expanding into broader on-demand delivery, and then diversifying further. That model tests not only founder strategy and resilience, but also financing capacity and balance-sheet depth.

Note: financing amounts and 2030 market forecasts are historical figures from the January 28, 2024 source article.