Ever craved genuine xiao long bao on a delivery app and come up empty-handed? That’s exactly what happened to Chowbus co-founder Linxin Wen when he moved to Chicago – he couldn’t find the authentic Asian flavors he grew up with, and hated the exorbitant delivery fees. This frustration turned into a passion project. In 2016 Wen (with co-founder Suyu Zhang) launched Chowbus, “a food delivery platform providing high-quality, authentic Asian food” designed specifically to serve ethnic mom-and-pop restaurants and their communities globenewswire.com. Their mantra was simple: help small businesses succeed. Wen puts it plainly:
“Our passion is to help small business owners. If they succeed, we succeed.”
iit.edu. Starting with hand-picked Chinese and Asian eateries in Chicago, Chowbus set out to bridge a cultural gap mainstream apps were ignoring en.wikipedia.org globenewswire.com.
Chowbus had a clear edge: laser-focus on authenticity and community. They hand-curated menus from mom-and-pop shops (paired with mouth-watering food photos), offered dishes in Mandarin and Cantonese, and built an app that “feels more like shopping the aisles of your favorite Chinatown market than browsing a generic menu”.
By launching the delivery app on campus and in city neighborhoods, Chowbus rode the Asian student and immigrant word-of-mouth wave. The team even ran thematic campaigns – like Lunar New Year fundraisers and wild-poster street ads in Chinatown districts – showing that
“Chowbus cares deeply about the communities we serve.”
globenewswire.com. These grassroots tactics (targeting college, Millennials, foodies and AAPI communities wildposting.com) packed restaurants in Boston, Seattle, Chicago and beyond.
Within a few years, the Chowbus “bus” had rolled out of Chicago across 20+ cities in North America en.wikipedia.org foodondemand.com. (Think Boston, LA, Toronto – even far-flung routes delivering dumplings from San Francisco’s Chinatown to diners in Bend, Oregon foodondemand.com.) Their map of expansion reads like a diaspora love letter: spots where big Asian hubs meet mobile-savvy communities.
In 2023 Chowbus officially serves 28 North American cities foodondemand.com, with thousands of restaurant partners.
And growth hasn’t slowed – each funding round fueled more reach. In summer 2020 Chowbus raised $33M Series A, then another $30M in late 2020, earmarked for new cities and even an Asian grocery delivery arm
foodondemand.com. By 2024 the platform claimed 27–28 cities with a five-fold jump in restaurants on board and triple the customer base foodondemand.com. (All that with a modest $1 delivery model!) Such metrics go to show that a hyper-niche marketplace can skyrocket if you give underserved customers exactly what they want
en.wikipedia.org foodondemand.com.
Chowbus didn’t just copy UberEats – it improved upon it with Asian flair. For example, every dish is showcased with gorgeous, high-res photos. Co-founder Suyu Zhang explains they’re “improving our use of high-quality photography and videos… [to] showcase unique dishes and even chefs”foodondemand.com. The app’s splash screen even proudly reads “Best Asian Food, Delivered,” setting user expectations. Dig deeper and you find clever UX touches: onboarding in multiple Asian languages, bilingual customer support, and localized menu recommendations. Chowbus also invented a bundling hack to crush delivery costs: orders from different restaurants can be combined “in one order without extra fees.”iit.edu
In other words, you can grab soup from one vendor and sushi from another on the same route, just like people taking a single bus route. (Zhang literally built that into the design – “Each route… we have about 20 routes in Chicago,” he said, “each stop delivery time is guaranteed… the beauty is we can lower the delivery fee to only $1…”
engineering.uic.edu engineering.uic.edu.) This unique bundling means customers get a full multi-course meal delivered for the price of one trip, a massive win for users and sellers alike.
Chowbus built in loyalty tools too: their “Chowbus Plus” subscription has over half of their customers enrolled, who then order 5-6 times per month on average
foodondemand.com. Altogether, these features (bundling, bilingual UX, rewards, stunning food photography) created a polished, customer-obsessed experience that mainstream apps simply couldn’t match medium.com foodondemand.com.
For entrepreneurs, it’s clear why Chowbus resonated: they catered directly to their niche. The app’s interface prioritized discovery – guided menus, top-rated dishes, flash deals – over brute-force search. New users see curated categories (popular rice bowls, bubble tea, dumplings) and tasteful banners. The medium-author UX review even noted Chowbus’s quick-add buttons and reward animations make ordering fun
medium.com. Importantly, Chowbus also let customers set their language preference right away, reflecting the platform’s focus on Chinese and Asian audiences medium.com. All these bits of polish resulted in high retention: as Zhang boasts, with Chowbus’s community ties
“we want to be more than a transactional platform… a more emotional platform that introduces unique food you’ve never tried before”
foodondemand.com. In short, Chowbus built a seamless, mouthwatering UX front-end that kept diners hooked.
While Chowbus refined its tech, the company kept hitting milestones. After the initial fundraising wins in 2020, they attracted $40M more by 2023, bringing total capital over $108M. Each round accelerated growth – and Chowbus plowed the money into geographic and vertical expansion foodondemand.com. For example, they introduced an Asian grocery delivery service to accompany the restaurant menus. (Customers in 23 cities can now get sashimi-grade tuna or fresh bok choy delivered via the Chowbus network globenewswire.com.) They hired experienced operations execs from Uber to scale across borders, and bolstered relief programs during COVID to support battered Chinatown partners foodondemand.com.
In numbers, the climb has been dramatic: from a few dozen restaurants at launch to thousands today. The Andreessen Horowitz Marketplace 100 even named Chowbus one of the fastest-growing consumer marketplaces in 2020 foodondemand.com. By early 2024, Chowbus counted 28 cities served, a five-fold jump in restaurants onboard, and triple the active users in just months foodondemand.com. (Their secret? Lean operations and viral word-of-mouth in tight-knit communities.) Funding also enabled tech upgrades: endless A/B testing, UX tweaks, and even influencer partnerships to boost discovery.
Chowbus’s mission went beyond business metrics. They actively gave back to the Asian communities that built them. For instance, Chowbus ran a nationwide Lunar New Year drive in 2021 – partnering with local charities from Chicago to Vancouver – donating $5 for every $60 order to help Chinatowns and Asian elders globenewswire.com. Linxin Wen explained that many families were celebrating virtually, so they felt “excited that families are choosing Chowbus to bring them a taste of home”globenewswire.com. These efforts reinforced trust: Chowbus became known as the friendly neighborhood app, not a faceless corporate giant. They teamed up with Asian American chambers and local events, building grassroots loyalty.
Their localized approach even extended to language. The Chowbus app invites users to pick Mandarin or Cantonese on startup en.wikipedia.org medium.com, and their support team hires bilingual reps. Restaurant partners rave about Chowbus calling them nearly daily to strategize in Chinese, elevating marketing via WeChat or Instagram. This cultural fluency helped Chowbus sign on generational family-run spots that bigger apps overlooked. As one restaurant owner noted, Chowbus’s local consultants not only bring orders but actual marketing savvy to ethnic small businesses
iit.edu.
Even when facing challenges, Chowbus leaned on its community bonds. In 2020 a cyberattack famously leaked customer data (an embarrassing “email bomb” showing names and addresses businessinsider.com). It was a major hit, but Chowbus quickly shored up security, assured users their credit cards were safe, and used it as a wake-up call to strengthen trust. Meanwhile, the platform’s niche focus became its shield – loyal users who love authentic food stuck around, since Chowbus was their app for their cuisine.
Chowbus Built: Authentic Asian food delivery for underserved neighborhoods (curated mom-and-pop menus, high-res dish photos, bundling, multi-language UX, loyalty program) globenewswire.com iit.edu| You Can Build: A niche marketplace with Ordering.co (choose any specialty – vegan, keto, local farmers); offer multi-vendor bundling; showcase products with gorgeous imagery; support multiple languages and currencies; include points or subscription rewards (all out-of-the-box features).
Local Community Focus: Partnerships with Asian chambers, campus groups, grassroots marketing to specific diaspora communities globenewswire.com wildposting.com
Targeted Growth: Ordering.co lets you easily localize marketing, run region-specific promos or charity drives, and integrate social media – so you can replicate Chowbus’s “community-first” strategy in your niche.
Proprietary App & POS: Developed in-house ordering app with pickup-route logistics; raised millions to scale tech foodondemand.com
Ready-Made Platform: With Ordering.co you get a fully-managed marketplace platform (mobile-friendly web and app templates), loyalty systems, and analytics without heavy dev costs – so you can launch and iterate in weeks.
Innovative Features: Unique multi-restaurant “bundle” ordering and multi-cuisine discovery iit.edu globenewswire.com
Plug-&-Play Features: Ordering.co provides vendor bundling, category pages, smart recommendations, and multi-vendor carts natively. Focus on your branding and community while the tech is handled.
Rapid Expansion: Scaled to 20+ cities and added verticals (groceries) via big funding rounds foodondemand.com foodondemand.com
Scalable Architecture: Ordering.co lets you grow to new cities or product lines seamlessly. Add vendors, languages, payment methods, and features (like virtual kitchens or delivery scheduling) as you go.
Resilience: Built a loyal customer base (60% on Chowbus Plus) with retention tactics and cultural trust foodondemand.com globenewswire.com
Customer Engagement: Ordering.co includes built-in marketing (email blasts, loyalty points, push notifications). You can nurture customer lifetime value in your niche just like Chowbus did with its “Chowbus Plus” subscriptions.
Chowbus’s journey shows that specialization and community can outpace generic giants. By homing in on Asian cuisine and culture, they created an emotional connection that big players missed. Today, you can follow in their footsteps with Ordering.co. Our platform provides the same core building blocks Chowbus engineered – marketplace engine, multi-store cart, loyalty modules, multilingual support, beautiful UX – so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Ready to launch your own niche delivery marketplace? Build Your Niche Marketplace with Ordering.co and serve your community just like Chowbus did.