Disrupting the farmer to market ecommerce - Provender

 Provender is out to connect restaurants with farmers, fishermen, and foragers by creating a kind of digital farmer’s market. With fewer intermediaries, prices are lower for restaurants buying fresh mushrooms or scallops from a local producer, and they can pay a single Provender invoice rather than dozens of separate ones. The company began serving Eastern Canada first, and has more recently expanded to New England, Florida, and Colorado. CEO Caithrin Rintoul says that the startup’s average order size is nearly $1,500, and that its operations in New England hit $100,000 in bookings a little more than two months after launching here. Rintoul says the startup aspires to create “the operating system of agriculture.” Barry Maiden, formerly the chef at Hungry Mother in Cambridge, has signed on to be the startup’s “ambassador” for the New England region.