First Bite Acquires Pantry.AI to Bring AI Automation to Foodservice Sales

San Francisco, CA - October 29th, 2025 - First Bite, the leading go-to-market software platform for foodservice manufacturers, today announces its acquisition of Pantry.AI, a New York-based startup that uses AI to transform how manufacturers capture and act on fragmented data across their sales ecosystem.

The acquisition accelerates First Bite's roadmap to unify the scattered data and streamline time-consuming processes that keep manufacturers from capturing foodservice opportunities. The Pantry.AI team brings deep experience from HubSpot, where they developed AI tools to automate complex sales processes at scale. Now, they're applying that expertise to solve foodservice's massive data fragmentation problem.

“Foodservice sales teams lose enormous time and visibility to manual tasks—chasing data from brokers, GPOs, conferences and distributors, and reconciling scattered PDFs and spreadsheets,” said Reed McCord, Founder and CEO of First Bite. “Pantry.AI has been tackling this exact problem with AI agents in the broader CPG space. Together, we're automating the manual work and surfacing intelligence that helps teams identify and win more opportunities.”

‍Why It Matters

• From Repetitive to Automated: Pantry.AI’s agents ingest and structure data from the most common but fragmented sources—distributor reports, emails, attachments and PDFs—making it actionable inside First Bite’s CRM and rebates platform.

• Closing the Data Gap: By unifying data from brokers, distributors and GPOs, manufacturers can finally see which investments drive incremental revenue, which accounts have untapped potential and where competitors are winning. 

• Unified Go-to-Market System: First Bite already combines data, CRM, in-platform campaigns and digital rebates. With Pantry.AI, First Bite will deploy new tools for sales ops and finance teams, creating a complete vertical SaaS platform for foodservice manufacturers.

Under the acquisition, Pantry.AI Technical Lead and Co-Founder Arlo Clarke, will join First Bite full-time to head development of intelligent automation features. Pantry.AI Co-Founder Ian Leaman will join as an advisor, bringing deep category and product expertise.

“The power of First Bite is how it connects manufacturers to the entire foodservice ecosystem,” said Clarke. “Now, our automation technology goes directly into manufacturers' hands, helping them navigate and win in this complex network of operators, distributors and brokers.”

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About First Bite

First Bite is the AI-powered go-to-market platform for food manufacturers. The company maps 1.5M+ U.S. foodservice locations and equips teams with vertical CRM, precise operator targeting, in-platform campaigns and digital rebates that pay out in days with full attribution. Founded in 2022 and backed by Bread & Butter Ventures, Leadout Capital and Pathbreaker Ventures, First Bite helps manufacturers replace blanket discounting and manual trade programs with targeted, measurable growth. Learn more at firstbite.io.

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About Pantry.AI

Pantry.AI builds AI agents and integrations that turn unstructured sales and order data into actionable insights. Founded in New York in 2023 with venture backing, the company’s technology streamlines fragmented workflows and helps revenue teams operate with greater speed, clarity and efficiency.