Mustard Wants to Turn Your Food Videos Into a Revenue Source

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Mustard Wants to Turn Your Food Videos Into a Revenue Source

Food content videos have become wildly popular on social media, but rarely can you order directly from your screen.

Diana Might and David Currant's concept could change that. The two, who were introduced by a mutual friend over Zoom, co-founded Mustard, a food video app that makes its uploaded food videos shoppable.


Might, a Netflix senior producer and self-described major foodie, admits she finds food through social media apps but isn't fond of the research it takes to translate a mouth-watering video clip into an order.

"Why can't I just order through the video?" Might said. "There isn't a hyperlink there, so I need to find the name of the food or the place and then go and search it on Yelp or Google, and it's just like five, six different places until I can get to what I want."

Once a user creates their profile, they are given the option to select three interests that pertain to the type of food they like. Whether you are into comfort food or identify as vegetarian, the algorithm aims to take into account your interests.

Mustard co-founders Diana Might and David CurrantMustard co-founders Diana Might and David Currant

Unlike videos found on Instagram or other social media platforms, Mustard highlight's food videos based on users' locations. The startup is working with content creators to repurpose their food videos into revenue opportunities.

"We just picked up the trends that already exist; people already create videos," Might said. "They already find food for videos, but we just merged two worlds together and made that more simpler and more fun to order food around you."

If their video converts a viewer into a diner, the creator automatically receives an affiliate fee — at no cost to the restaurant.

"There's so many food apps that cater first to the business and the restaurant, and our interests as foodies and content creators are the last in the line," Might said.

Mustard announced Monday that it raised $1 million in funding from Operate Studio, Newfund, Great North Ventures, and Fund LA.

The startup will use the money to hire new engineers and expand the company, creating more density in areas around Los Angeles and the rest of California.

The app is primarily available in Los Angeles, Orange County and the Bay Area and contains over 8,000 restaurants in its database. In the next year, it's also looking to branch out to the East Coast. And Mustard's co-founder said the company will be releasing a video editor within their app by the end of the year.

"I'm developing filters for food because on Instagram, you have filters for the face, only compliments certain skin tones, but not food tones," Might said.

Currently, the app is only available for iOS users, but Might said the company is planning to release an Android version in the future.

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LA Tech ‘Moves’: LeaseLock, Visgenx, PlayVS and Pressed Juicery Gains New CEOs

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech ‘Moves’: LeaseLock, Visgenx, PlayVS and Pressed Juicery Gains New CEOs
LA Tech ‘Moves’:

“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.

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LeaseLock, a lease insurance and financial technology provider for the rental housing industry named Janine Steiner Jovanovic as chief executive officer. Prior to this role, Steiner Jovanovic served as the former EVP of Asset Optimization at RealPage.

Esports platform PlayVS hired EverFi co-founder and seasoned business leader Jon Chapman as the company’s chief executive officer.

Biotechnology company Visgenx appointed William Pedranti, J.D. as chief executive officer. Before joining, Mr. Pedranti was a partner with PENG Life Science Ventures.

Pressed Juicery, the leading cold-pressed juice and functional wellness brand welcomed Justin Nedelman as chief executive officer. His prior roles include chief real estate officer of FAT Brands Inc. and co-founder of Eureka! Restaurant Group.

Michael G. Vicari joined liquid biopsy company Nucleix as chief commercial officer. Vicari served as senior vice president of Sales at GRAIL, Inc.

Full-service performance marketing agency Allied Global Marketing promoted Erin Corbett to executive vice president of global partnership and marketing. Prior to joining Allied, Corbett's experience included senior marketing roles at Disney, Warner Bros. Studios, Harrah's Entertainment and Imagi Animation Studios.

Nuvve, a vehicle-to-grid technology company tapped student transportation and automotive sales and marketing executive David Bercik to lead the K-12 student transportation division.

This Week in ‘Raises’: Curri Scoops Up $42M, Mosaic Scores $26M

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Raises
Image by Joshua Letona

A local logistics platform raised fresh funding to put toward product development, infrastructure and sales and marketing initiatives, while a San Diego-based fintech company closed its Series C funding round to expand its investment in AI which will empower high-growth SMB and mid-market finance leaders.

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Venture Capital

Curri, a Ventura-based logistics platform, raised a $42 million Series B funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

San Diego-based financial platform Mosaic raised a $26 million Series C funding round led by OMERS Ventures.

AHARA, a Los Angeles-based startup focused on providing personalized nutrition suggestions, raised a $10.25 million seed funding round led by Greycroft.

Per an SEC filing, San Diego-based developer of peptide therapeutics designed to assist in the treatment of autoimmune diseases and disorders selectIon raised $5 million in funding.

Miscellaneous

Los Angeles-based Sensydia, a company working on non-invasive cardiac diagnostics, said this morning that it has received $3 million in a NIH grant.

Raises is dot.LA’s weekly feature highlighting venture capital funding news across Southern California’s tech and startup ecosystem. Please send fundraising news to Decerry Donato (decerrydonato@dot.la).

'Esports Winter’ is a Myth, Local Gaming Execs Say

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

'Esports Winter’ is a Myth, Local Gaming Execs Say
Samson Amore

Last year, global venture capital investment in esports dropped by more than 40%. Investors have been rapidly selling off teams and franchises, and the industry has witnessed a consistent decline in ad spend. This has prompted many critics to coin the term “esports winter,” referring to a fall-off in the industry, an indication that VCs believe their investments didn’t achieve success as expected.

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