The first GrubHub logo was unveiled in 2004 when the firm was founded. The logo stayed in use until it was redesigned in 2011. The original GrubHub logo didn’t have any images, just the company’s name.
At first, the letters were lowercase, apart from the “H,” and they were laid out in a slight curve. The basic logo design reflects the company’s aim to make food ordering a simple process.
The original GrubHub logo was red against a white backdrop, creating a vivid contrast. The red is a symbol of energy, strength, and power. It’s also the color most people associate with food.
While the GrubHub logo has evolved since the founding of the food ordering and delivery service, it has kept many of the elements featured in the first two versions. While the first two versions didn’t feature images, the current image is immediately recognizable as part of the GrubHub logo.
The choice of design and colors portray GrubHub as a modern, exciting company. It also portrays it as a sleek, professional business, which is the impression GrubHub tries to leave on its customers.
The GrubHub Logo Evolution
2004 — 2011
The original GrubHub symbol was unveiled when the food delivery service was founded in 2004 and was in use for nearly 7 years. The logo was a simple but bright emblem featuring the company’s website and a plate as the two key elements.
The emblem had a solid red square with a shiny red circle featuring a thin border placed in the middle. The circle supposedly represents the world and features a gray plate “rotating” around it, with orange and white orbits placed on the left.
The red circle featured an arched website address (Grubhub.com) written in a rounded bold sans-serif on top, while a yellow “Who Delivers?” tagline was featured at the bottom part. The tagline was written in a stylized typeface, with the textures and edges a bit jagged.
2011 — 2016
The second GrubHub logo design was in the form of text but primarily used lowercase letters, except for one uppercase H. The color scheme was a darker red tone, while the wordmark was curved. The current GrubHub logo is more refined and packs plenty of punch, but it’s still inspired by the original version.
2016 — 2021
The visual identity of GrubHub in this era is concise but bright. The logo comprises a red wordmark placed against a white background, written in uppercase letters using a strong sans-serif font with thick, sleek lines. The company’s icon uses only two white letters, G and H, placed slightly diagonally against a red background. This created a lovely angular visual effect.
One of the most popular American graphic design firms, Wolff Olins, designed the 2016 version. The logo was made to look more powerful and modern, with the lively color combination making it look elegant and memorable.
2021 — Present
The GrubHub logo was again redesigned in 2021, adding a huge graphical feature to the wordmark and changing the color scheme of the entire emblem. The emblem now features a white and orange color scheme, which brings to mind a sense of happiness, joy, and positive feelings.
The wordmark retained the font from the previous design and was now placed below the graphical feature—an orange house shadow with a white knife and fork drawn vertically on it. This is a very simple but impactful image, which appears friendly and represents the company’s purpose. Enough said!
The GrubHub Logo Design Elements
Color: The new orange color used by the GrubHub logo matches the official palette of JET. It features white, too, just like the holding company’s emblem.
Font: After the redesign of 2021, the GrubHub logo’s font remained unchanged. It still uses a thick sans serif Barlow Semi Condensed font, which was inspired by street signs and created by Jeremy Tribby.
The History of GrubHub
Owned by parent company Just Eat Takeaway, GrubHub, Inc. is a US online and mobile-based food ordering and delivery service that connects customers with local restaurants. It was established in 2004 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
As of 2019, GrubHub had 115,000 affiliated restaurants in all the 50 states and 19.9 million active customers. In April 2014, GrubHub Seamless traded publicly on the NYSE under the symbol “GRUB.” In June 2020, GrubHub was taken over in a $7.3 billion deal by Dutch-based company Just Eat Takeaway.
GrubHub Origins
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In 2004, Mike Evans partnered up with Matt Maloney to establish GrubHub in Chicago, Illinois. They first created a substitute for paper menus. In 2006, Evans and Maloney won a prestigious School of Business award at University of Chicago for their GrubHub business plan.
In November 2007, Origin Ventures and Amicus Capital led Series A funding for GrubHub, securing $1.1 million for expansion into New York and San Francisco markets. In the first quarter of 2009, Leo Capital and Origin Ventures oversaw Series B funding for the company, securing $2 million.
In November 2010, Series C funding overseen by Benchmark Capital raised $11 million for GrubHub. Then DAG Ventures led Series D funding for GrubHub in March 2011, raising $20 million.
GrubHub’s brand portfolio includes Seamless, MenuPages, AllMenus, Tapingo, and LevelUp. Seamless is a web and mobile phone-based food ordering service for regional restaurants operating in the United States and London, England.
In September 2011, Series E funding secured $50 million for GrubHub, allowing the company to acquire New York-based rival Dotmenu, which owned Campusfood and AllMenus. GrubHub finalized the takeover of AllMenus the same month. In the same month as well, Seamless acquired MenuPages.
In February 2015, GrubHub acquired Brighton, Massachusetts-based online food ordering and delivery company DiningIn. In the same month, GrubHub also acquired California-based corporate food delivery service Restaurants on the Run.
GrubHub bought Delivered Dish, a food delivery service, in December 2015. Delivered Dish was serving 7 markets all over the Pacific Southwest and Northwest, including El Paso, Albuquerque, Portland, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Denver. In May 2016, GrubHub acquired LAbite, a restaurant delivery service based in Los Angeles.
GrubHub agreed to a $287.5 million deal to buy Eat24 from Yelp, subject to regulatory approval, in August 2017. Two months later, the company announced that it had finalized its takeover of Eat24, but shut it down in late 2018.
In September 2018, GrubHub acquired certain assets from 11 franchise OrderUp markets. The company had already acquired specific assets from 27 franchise OrderUp markets. In October 2018, GrubHub took full control of OrderUp.
In September 2018, GrubHub also acquired Boston-based payment solutions and diner engagement service LevelUp. The takeover was reportedly worth $390 million. In November of that year, the company acquired Tapingo, a campus food ordering platform based in San Francisco.
In March 2019, SkipTheDishes business in the US was taken over by GrubHub after the former announced it was exiting the American market.
By summer 2020, amid the global COVID-19 pandemic in which the demand for takeaway and food delivery services soared, GrubHub announced plans to keep its drivers safe from COVID-19 by offering contactless delivery and the choice to place pick-up orders for those who felt more comfortable fetching the food themselves.
The GrubHub Business Model
GrubHub Customer Segments
GrubHub says it serves about 7 million active customers—categorized as customers that have made an order over the past 1 year—and processes over 267,000 orders daily.
The company’s ordering and delivery service targets customers that lack the capability, inclination, or time to cook their own food and serves those who want food and takeaways delivered to their home on demand. The platform allows customers to order from local restaurants instead of major, established restaurant chains that run their own delivery services.
GrubHub also caters to companies, offering company accounts via its own brand Seamless. Seamless is presently available only to customers across the United States, where GrubHub serves over 1,000 cities and towns, and in London, England.
GrubHub Customer Relationships
GrubHub’s food ordering and delivery platform can be accessed by customers through self-service. Customers can sign up for an account, check out menus and make orders without interacting directly with the company, all through the company’s mobile apps and website.
Delivery partners can become part of the GrubHub fleet via an online form. On the other hand, restaurants must call GrubHub directly if they want to join the GrubHub fleet.
GrubHub offers 24/7 customer support services as well as provides information and FAQs for consumers on its website. The company also interacts with its partners and customers through its Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube accounts.
GrubHub Value Propositions
The main value of GrubHub to customers is the accessibility, breadth, and efficiency of its delivery service. GrubHub allows customers to order food on the go or from home, offering a wide array of nearby restaurants and international dishes, with its network boasting various restaurants that wouldn’t otherwise handle delivery orders.
The company’s food delivery platform also lets users keep track of their orders live, with 24/7 customer support available for customers that come upon problems.
GrubHub also offers its restaurant partners value, boosting their visibility and market penetration via its online service and allowing small businesses to process orders over the internet. The firm also lets its delivery partners earn a decent wage on a part-time, flexible basis, working whenever they feel like.
GrubHub Channels
The GrubHub food ordering and delivery platform is accessible through the company’s desktop and mobile websites (at www.grubhub.com) or via its Android or iOS mobile apps. GrubHub says that 60% of its orders are made through mobile apps.
Key GrubHub Activities
GrubHub creates and runs a mobile and online service for restaurant delivery and pick-up orders. The firm’s platform lets customers place orders from various local restaurants and keep track of their orders live.
The company also offers a re-order service, where customers can make repeat food orders from their restaurants of choice.
Moreover, GrubHub runs a chain of restaurant partners, using it to negotiate variable commission rates with independent delivery partners.
Key GrubHub Partners
The main partners of GrubHub are its chain of restaurants all over the United States and London, England, as well as its independent delivery partners. GrubHub’s delivery network includes about 44,000 restaurants, primarily consisting of smaller, local restaurants that have no online ordering system or delivery service of their own.
Where the firm’s competitors have focused more on big cities, GrubHub has opted to work with restaurants all over many of America’s small towns and cities, including those in Ashburn, Virginia, or Agawam, Massachusetts.
GrubHub also partners with a number of autonomous delivery partners, who include anyone that meets the firm’s requirements of owning a reliable vehicle, car insurance, valid driver’s license, and clean driving record.
Key GrubHub Resources
GrubHub’s main resources include its online delivery services, its network of restaurant and delivery partners, its IT infrastructure, as well as its employees.
The firm’s customer support employees are especially important as they allow customers to get help whenever they need it.
Wrapping Up the History of GrubHub
GrubHub is a US mobile and online prepared food delivery and ordering service that connects customers with their local restaurants. Owned by Dutch-based company Just Eat Takeaway, GrubHub was established in 2004 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The original GrubHub was founded by Matt Maloney and Mike Evans.
GrubHub started attracting investors in 2007, receiving $1.1 million worth of funding in its initial round. To date, the firm has raised over $84 million worth of funding from multiple investors, including Amicus Capital, Leo Capital, Origin Ventures, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
During its fairly brief history, GrubHub has acquired a number of food ordering and delivery platforms and now runs through the MenuPages and AllMenus brands on top of its own brand. Most importantly, the company merged with competitor food delivery company Seamless in 2013.
Still running under the brand name GrubHub, the merged company was listed on the NYSE in 2014 in an initial public offering worth $192 million. Today, GrubHub’s market capitalization is worth $2.08 billion.
