Cheetah swapped its B2B wholesale model for D2C delivery after COVID cut sales 80%

Before COVID-19, Cheetah ran a wholesale delivery business supplying restaurants and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area with ingredients and supplies, using its own fleet of refrigerated trucks. When shelter-in-place orders shut down its restaurant customers, the company's business volume fell 80% 'overnight,' according to co-founder and CEO Na'ama Moran.

Rather than wait for restaurants to reopen, Cheetah pivoted its existing trucks and technology stack toward consumers. It launched Cheetah For People, a direct-to-consumer service selling bakery items, dairy, meat, produce and cleaning supplies. Customers ordered through Cheetah's app and picked items up contactless from designated drive-through locations, with the trucks doubling as mobile warehouses across ten Bay Area pickup points.

The pivot worked because Cheetah controlled its own supply chain end to end rather than just brokering orders. Moran said the company had stock of items — toilet paper, flour, water — that grocery stores couldn't keep on shelves, sold at wholesale-level pricing.

In under eight weeks, the D2C service reached a $1 million-a-month sales run rate, a sharp reversal from the prior year when Cheetah had laid off staff after exiting underperforming markets. The company then closed a $36 million Series B led by Eclipse Ventures, with ICONIQ Capital, Hanaco Ventures and Floodgate participating, taking total funding past $66 million since its 2015 founding.

Reached a $1M-a-month sales run rate within eight weeks, closed a $36M Series B, and struck an exclusive Impossible Foods distribution deal.

Restaurant shutdowns eliminated Cheetah's core wholesale customer base almost instantly, leaving no time for a gradual transition.

Its existing refrigerated truck fleet and technology stack could be redirected to consumers without building new infrastructure from scratch.

Owning the full supply chain, rather than just brokering orders like some competitors, let it hold stock that grocery stores had run out of.

Fast, visible traction (the $1M run rate) gave investors evidence to back the pivot with new capital just weeks after the shift.

When a pandemic erases your buyer base overnight, point the same trucks and warehouses at the customer who is still there instead of waiting out the shutdown.

Cheetah used the new funding and validated D2C model to plan 2021 expansion into Dallas/Fort Worth and other markets, and signed an exclusive distribution partnership with Impossible Foods, letting consumers buy the Impossible Burger through Cheetah's contactless pickup network for the first time.