CATCH'N Ice Cream is a technology company.
CATCH'N Ice Cream has raised $2.0M across 1 funding round.
CATCH'N Ice Cream has raised $2.0M in total across 1 funding round.
CATCH'N Ice Cream was an experiential ice cream shop in New York City's SoHo neighborhood that specialized in acrobatic ice cream service, where staff tossed pre-scooped ice cream balls and toppings in the air before serving them to customers.[2][4] Founded by social media creator Dylan Lemay, it targeted ice cream enthusiasts, families, and tourists seeking a fun, interactive treat, solving the problem of mundane dessert experiences by turning scooping into a viral performance art.[1][2] The shop opened in August 2022 with early buzz from Lemay's millions of followers but closed after about a year due to high NYC rents, low foot traffic, and intense competition, despite side ventures like events and ghost kitchens generating some revenue.[3]
Dylan Lemay, a former Cold Stone Creamery employee with over 16 million followers across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, developed his signature ice cream-tossing skills during his day job and began filming viral videos of the acrobatics.[2][5] In 2021, he raised $1.5 million from investors, including fellow creators like Milan Mirg and The Korean Vegan, to launch CATCH'N Ice Cream at 65 Bleecker Street in SoHo.[3] Lemay spent a year refining the concept, including inventing a custom machine for pre-scooping ice cream balls to speed up service and focus on the tosses, opening the "experiential" store in August 2022 as a brick-and-mortar extension of his online fame.[2][3]
CATCH'N Ice Cream exemplified the creator economy trend, where social media influencers monetize niche skills into physical businesses using simple automation like custom scooping machines to scale performances.[2][3][5] It rode the wave of experiential retail post-Covid, blending TikTok virality with food tech for "Instagrammable" moments, but highlighted market forces like NYC's recovering tourism, soaring rents, and competition from legacy brands that doomed many pop-ups.[3] The shop influenced the ecosystem by inspiring creator-funded ventures—Lemay raised from peers—and testing hybrid models like ghost kitchens, though its closure underscores challenges for non-tech "tech" plays in oversaturated urban food scenes.[3]
CATCH'N's swift rise and fall reveals the high-stakes bet of translating online virality into offline profitability, with its tech-enabled efficiencies unable to offset NYC's brutal economics.[3] Looking ahead, Lemay—still backed by his massive audience—may pivot to scalable formats like franchised pop-ups, packaged toss kits, or digital content extensions, capitalizing on experiential dining's growth amid stabilizing tourism.[3] As creator businesses evolve, expect more hybrid food-tech plays emphasizing performance and automation, potentially reshaping casual dining if they adapt to cost realities beyond SoHo showmanship. This saga ties back to its core hook: a dazzling toss that captivated millions but couldn't stick the landing in a tough market.
CATCH'N Ice Cream has raised $2.0M in total across 1 funding round.
CATCH'N Ice Cream's investors include Ecliptic Capital.
CATCH'N Ice Cream has raised $2.0M across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $2.0M Seed in November 2021.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 1, 2021 | $2.0M Seed | Ecliptic Capital |