The Capital Raise
Meat N' Bone, the Miami-based premium protein retailer and food-and-beverage operator, is raising $4 million in Pre-Series A equity to fund national expansion, marketing, logistics, debt repayment, and franchising infrastructure — a round the company is pairing with a newly formed five-member advisory board carrying more than 110 years of combined industry experience.
The company, which operates eight boutique locations, a central fulfillment center, and three food-and-beverage concepts under The Wagyu Bar, The Wagyu House, and Get The Cook banners, reported it is on track for $13.5 million in revenue in 2026. Management is targeting more than $70 million in annual revenue by 2029 across more than 40 company-owned and franchised boutiques, with a stated path toward $100 million. Meat N' Bone has fulfilled more than 500,000 orders for more than 150,000 guests since inception and competes in what it describes as a $400 billion-plus premium protein category without a dominant national brand.
The Advisory Roster
The advisory committee spans experiential marketing, restaurant scaling, CPG brand-building, protein supply-chain operations, and institutional capital. Rob Wilder, co-founder and vice chairman of José Andrés Group — which operates more than 45 restaurants across North America and the Bahamas — and co-founder of World Central Kitchen, brings global hospitality scale. Deb Luster, founder and former president of Annie's Homegrown, now a general-mills-owned brand with over $1 billion in estimated value, anchors the CPG and social-impact lane. Carlos M. Herrera, former president and CEO of Durham Meat and Seafood, a $180 million protein platform operating under the Sierra Meat, Flocchini, and MacDonald Meats brands, contributes direct category expertise spanning manufacturing, distribution, and Asian export operations. Barry T. Kates, founder of Innovative Group, an experiential marketing agency whose client roster includes PepsiCo, Heineken, and the NFL, rounds out the brand-activation capability. Roberto Lopez, CEO of RRA Group and Meat N' Bone's first institutional backer, joins the board in a governance capacity.
"This board represents exactly the right blend of brand-building prowess, hospitality expertise, supply-chain mastery, and capital discipline we need to establish Meat N' Bone as America's premium protein leader," said Luis Mata, CEO of Meat N' Bone.
Why It Matters
Meat N' Bone's hybrid retail model — boutiques that simultaneously serve as local fulfillment hubs for same-day delivery in South Florida and as origin points for nationwide shipping — is central to its competitive positioning. The structure attempts to solve a logistics gap that constrains frozen-only direct-to-consumer protein brands, which cannot offer the fresh, same-day service that proximity retail enables. As premium protein retail continues to attract capital investment, the question for Meat N' Bone is whether the boutique-hub model can replicate efficiently outside South Florida as it moves into franchise territory.
The Pre-Series A raise comes as the broader foodservice and specialty food retail sector faces continued pressure from consumer trade-down in center-of-plate spending, making the brand's ability to justify its premium positioning — chef-grade beef, wagyu, seafood, caviar, and game — increasingly dependent on experience and convenience differentiation rather than price alone. The advisory board's hospitality and CPG pedigree suggests the company is orienting its next phase around brand equity construction as much as unit economics.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
