Exclusive: Uni-one raises $10 million Series A to expand across North America

Uni-one — a startup setting out to become the largest and most innovative food supply chain platform — has raised CAD $10 million in a Series A round at a $60 million valuation to scale across Canada and the U.S.

According to the company, North America's food supply chain industry “clings” to the same old-fashioned, outdated, and inefficient system it's used for the past decades. Many traders operate with family-run management styles and use legacy systems. At the same time, the product pool is fragmented and underserves ethnic restaurants and grocery stores. 

Uni-one is addressing these gaps by offering a one-stop platform for restaurants, grocers, wholesalers, and any business requiring food products. The app allows clients to browse products, receive recommendations, place and manage orders, track costs and trends, and more. 

“Restaurants and grocers in North America must manage hundreds of suppliers every day,” Uni-one co-founder and CEO, Neil Gu, told the Vancouver Tech Journal. “For example, in Canada, restaurant owners may need to make 30 to 40 calls to source different materials from veggies, meat, seafood, seasoning, and more. And for every category, they need three to four suppliers for backup.” 

Gu added: “It’s even worse for franchises. In each city, they need to maintain the same scale of supply chain with different local suppliers. You can see how this can balloon to a mind-numbing scale — especially for ethnic foods that need specialized ingredients.”

The company makes the process more streamlined through its proprietary intelligent system, which integrates procurement, warehouse management, frontend order placing, and logistic dispatching — leveraging its own algorithm. The startup aims to optimize efficiency based on volume, temperature requirements, time sensitivity, and vehicle requirements. 

What sets Uni-one apart from the competition — besides its tech — are its contacts with global suppliers to offer a range of authentic, specialized products, and its processing capabilities through its own meat and seafood plants.

Uni-one’s round includes investments from Celtic House Asia Partners (CHAP) and affiliate Celtic House Venture Partners (CHVP), Red River Investments, Banyan Pacific Capital, Fantuan, and others. The company will allocate the funds towards strategic mergers and acquisitions, market consolidation and expansion, and improving supply chain infrastructure.

“The new financing round will allow Uni-one to achieve two critical milestones,” wrote the company in a press release. “First, Uni-one will now be able to extend its distribution services to all Canadian provinces and cities, ensuring a robust presence in every region. It will also allow the company to enter the U.S. market, leveraging its advanced supply chains and strategic partnerships to capture a new share of the food distributors in the U.S.”

Since launching in 2017, the business has raised over $20 million and has consistently doubled its annual revenue rate. The company is already working with many notable chains like T&T Supermarket, H-Mart, Sungiven Foods, Loblaws, and Walmart. It’s also completed four acquisitions and has plans to finalize three more this year. Uni-one believes these deals will strengthen its North America presence, particularly by developing new distribution centers in the Midwest and meat processing facilities on the East Coast. 

“The North American food wholesale and food services market is ripe for innovation,” said Tomas Valis, managing partner at CHVP. “With Uni-one’s deep knowledge of the food wholesale and services market, extensive operational experience in e-commerce logistics and warehouse management, and strong cloud tech development capabilities, Gu and his team are uniquely positioned to execute this vision.”

From night market vendor to global supplier

The idea of Uni-one first came to mind when Gu worked as a corporate banker for HSBC. Through servicing accounts in different industries, he was exposed to insights that revealed how behind North America‘s food supply chain is.

However, it wasn’t until the executive observed a typical day in the restaurant business that he decided to come up with a solution. He witnessed his friend, who owns a restaurant, spend hours texting and making phone calls to over 30 suppliers — just to make sure he receives products in time to serve customers.

At the time, Gu had yet to venture into tech; however, he already had a taste for entrepreneurship. He shared that he previously dabbled with different businesses, starting from while he was in school — from opening a night market stand to flipping houses. 

“Despite massive leaps in tech, North America's food supply chain industry has been slow to adopt them, which I believe is due to outdated mindsets and complacency,” said Gu. “The handful of major industry players have been conducting business the same way for the past 20-to-30 years. Due to the lack of competition, there isn’t motivation for them to change their business models.”

The CEO added that, by contrast, competition in China is “extremely fierce” as even the biggest companies are at risk of being replaced by “the next big thing.”

As examples, Gu highlighted Meicai, a B2B platform for agricultural products, fresh produce, and vegetables. It streamlines the supply chain process through building its own warehouse, logistics, distribution, delivery team, and storage centers. The platform also offers traceability services to ensure the safety of its products.

Another is Kuailvzaixian, a procurement platform for purchasing food ingredients, disposable items, beverages, and more. The organization provides a wide range of products like grains, cooking oil, alcohol, tableware, paper towels, printers, and other essentials.

Venturing out with former SFU students

When Gu was ready to create a solution, he teamed up with fellow SFU graduates: Kevin Men and Jun Wang. 

The trio brings diverse skills. Gu is a CFA with extensive experience in finance and sales. Meanwhile, Men has hands-on experience with agriculture and warehouse management, and Wang has a strong background in research.

Their differences would be especially valuable as Uni-one established its presence in the food supply chain industry.

“This is an industry of accumulation — industry contacts, infrastructure, and networks,” said Gu. “We put our heads down during the early years and worked hard to build up networks to get to the stage where tech and capital can be leveraged. It’s similar to, ‘It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.’ You can have an amazing product, but just like an amazing resume, if you don’t know the right people, it’s hard to get noticed.”

What’s helped Uni-one acquire and retain clients — besides the platform’s offerings, efficiency, and transparency — is its service. From onboarding to support, the company said it “truly offers end-to-end service” and ensures all customers’ concerns are heard, understood, and answered.

One case involved helping Masa Ishibashi, a high-end omakase restaurant, recreate the same culinary experience for customers in Vancouver as in Japan. Uni-one offered a way for Masa to import all of its ingredients by air and have them cleared by customs and delivered within 24 hours.

The same is true of Haidilao, one of China's most famous hotpot brands, which has over 1,000 locations globally. Uni-one was the only platform to meet its sourcing standards, such as product length and size, packaging, and delivery timing. The company now works with seven Haidilao stores in Canada, with more to come next year. 

Impact on the industry and B.C.

Uni-one believes its success will transform the food supply chain industry in North America and B.C.’s tech ecosystem.

“[The company] gives entrepreneurs a unique perspective on what can be re-done or re-shaped,” said Gu. “We’re also actively hiring local talents and creating more jobs. As we expand, we’re looking for talent to operate our warehouses, delivery network, processing plants, and sales departments.”

For those thinking about tackling a traditional industry like Uni-one, Gu emphasized how he approaches business.

“My strategy has always been to target industries with immense growth potential — those with a high ceiling and room to scale,” he said. “It’s crucial to be strategic with capital, using both debt and equity wisely to fuel growth and innovation. It's this combination of market potential, technological innovation, competition, and smart capital management that drives success.”

Gu also encouraged leaders to step outside their comfort zone and ditch the thought that "it's always been done this way.”

“In today’s dynamic business landscape, that thinking simply isn’t sustainable,” said Gu. “While the advantages of emerging technologies are clear, taking advantage of them starts with a change in mindset, especially at leadership levels.”

Editors’ note: This article has been updated to reflect that Uni-one’s investors include Celtic House Asia Partners and affiliate Celtic House Venture Partners, Red River Investments, Banyan Pacific Capital, and Fantuan.

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