Kimbal Musk Invests In Everytable’s Lower-Income Focus

A restaurant chain focused on affordable, healthy food has earned a $5.3 million investment from some big-name investors, including Kimbal Musk, brother of Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Founded in 2015, Everytable CEO Sam Polk has established a Los Angeles beachhead with five restaurants in the area. Meals are made from whole ingredients that are never fried, and are free of artificial flavorings and colors. The meals cost $5 or $8 dollars, with customers in high-income neighborhoods paying the higher price.

“There is an explosion of demand for healthy food across the country being met by some incredible fast casual brands like sweetgreen, Dig Inn and others,” says Polk, according to CNBC. “Those are healthy meals at twelve to fifteen bucks. But if your budget drops to a five to eight dollar price point, there are only two quasi-healthy players, Chipotle and Subway. They are like 90s definition of health.”

In order to sell healthy foods for low prices, Everytable utilizes software and data analytics to track data about which meals it sold and where so the company can forecast demand and avoid wasting food. In addition, each location tracks how well it’s doing through a digital mood-measuring kiosk where customers can provide feedback by tapping a smiley or frowny face on the screen.

And the company saves money by forgoing a commercial kitchen at each location. Instead, Everytable sends prepared meals out from a central kitchen to its smaller storefronts.

Polk believes that Everytable can one day be as popular as food franchises like McDonald’s or Taco Bell, but with a focus on affordable nutrition. In addition to Musk, investors include social impact investors Acumen, Maria Shriver, TOMS Social Entrepreneurship Fund, and Chipotle, among others.

The company will use its latest funds to grow in and beyond Los Angeles.

“Everything this company does is about delivering a product to the consumer on the most efficient basis,” said Acumen’s Markeze Bryant. “So even though it’s a food business with a social mission, we see it as a tech company. There’s a lot of innovation around ordering, forecasting, pricing and everything else it takes to deliver savings, and ultimately good health, to the customers.”