*By Michael Teich*
The ice cream maker Van Leeuwen secured an undisclosed minority investment Monday from Strand Equity that the Brooklyn ice-cream outfit's founder said he wants to use to expand.
"Our goal is to go nationwide," Ben Van Leeuwen, the company's founder and CEO, said Monday in an interview with Cheddar.
Van Leeuwen is available in 700 stores in 25 states, but the boost from Strand will allow the brand to expand its own ice crime shops. Van Leeuwen said the company has 13 stores in New York and Los Angeles, and he aims to have 35 stores by April 2019.
The company also has a close eye on the delivery market ー which includes UberEats, Postmates, and Caviar. Food delivery sales grew 51 percent in the U.S. from last August to March 2018, according to [market research firm Second Measure.](https://www.recode.net/2018/4/18/17242262/uber-eats-grubhub-food-delivery-startup)
"That sector for us is growing massively year over year," Van Leeuwen said. "We're trying to get our delivery times down to 15 minutes."
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/van-leeuwen-has-investors-screaming-for-ice-cream-2).
Facebook and Instagram users will start seeing labels on AI-generated images in their feeds. Hopefully this will save time for everyone zooming in each picture to see how many fingers someone's hand has.
Seth Schachner, Managing Director at StratAmericas, weighs in on Spotify earnings and why that headline-grabbing deal with Joe Rogan could be worth that $250 million.
Mitch Roschelle, Managing Director at Madison Ventures, shares why investors may be waiting longer than expected for those interest rate cuts, and why he’s watching tech, oil, and homebuilder stocks.
Amazon saw 24% growth in their Thursday Night Football audience in 2023. Subscribers will be rewarded with even more sports, but not without enduring more ads — unless they pay extra, of course.
Low unemployment + 350 thousand new jobs in January = ...more layoffs? A bunch of tech and retail companies have laid and are laying off employees after a nationwide hiring surge during the pandemic.
The most magical place on Earth wants a protective order to keep Gov. Ron DeSantis' appointees from knowing how the magic happens. A federal judge dismissed a separate Disney lawsuit last week.
