The Latest News
EatStreet Shoots for Midwest Delivery Dominance
Started in a dorm room 10 years ago, Madison, Wisconsin-based EatStreet has raked in $50 million in investment funds, which helped the company expand to four states and 25 delivery markets across the Midwest. With W-2 drivers, rather than independent contractors, EatStreet is finding success in the shadows of the delivery industry’s giants.
Chowly Nabs Grubhub Integration
Two Chicago delivery-focused brands are finally formally integrated now that Chowly has entered into a partnership with Grubhub to bring its menu management and order fulfillment solution to restaurants on the Grubhub marketplace.
Grubhub, Restaurant Strong Fund Roll Out Winter Relief
With this pandemic clearly dragging into the new year, Grubhub and The Greg Hill Foundation’s Restaurant Strong Fund announced the Restaurant Winterization Grant program, a new initiative to provide $10,000 grants to eligible independent restaurants.
DoorDash Finally Files to Go Public
Seven years after its founding, DoorDash filed its Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today signaling its imminent intent to become a publicly traded company. This is a significant milestone for the San Francisco-based company and the delivery industry as a whole, finally providing a look inside the economics of the largest U.S. delivery provider by market share.
Proposition 22 Passes in Big Win for Platforms
Proposition 22 has passed in California, allowing gig-employment giants like DoorDash, Uber, Lyft and Grubhub exemption from the state's gig-employment law. The total votes are still being tallied in California, but it appears that the ballot measure won by a...
Food On Demand Topics
Finance
Alex Canter Talks Ordermark and Nextbite’s $120M War Chest
After SoftBank Group invested $120M in Ordermark, Alex Canter is hoping one Nextbite’s virtual concepts will become the next Domino’s. In an interview w/Food On Demand, he delved into details of his growth plans and how virtual restaurants can be a boon to restaurants, rather than more competition.
Research
Mercatus Provides Online Grocery Update
As once-temporary pandemic habits become set in stone, Mercatus has released an update on what it calls the “egrocery” market, looking at what factors are impacting online grocery shopper loyalty and what features are becoming most important to shoppers who are now...
The Deliverers
Peak Virtual Restaurants? Not Even Close
With the explosion of virtual operations in response to the pandemic, it bears asking: what is peak virtual restaurant? According to panelists in a session of the Restaurant Finance Monitor's Restaurant Finance Week, we aren't even close. The panel, titled The...
Best Practices
What are your peers doing in delivery? Get some of the best practices out there.
Chipotle’s First Digital Kitchen One of Many to Come
When Chipotle's first digital-only restaurant opened last week in Highland Falls, New York, it became the first of what will certainly be many. In a lot of ways, the restaurant is the culmination of a huge amount of work to reformat the restaurant with a focus on...
FOD Briefs
DoorDash Unveils 2019’s Trending Delivery Foods
DoorDash has released its annual delivery trend report dubbed “The DoorDash Dish: 2019-2020 Trend Report,” showing what U.S. delivery consumers are hungry for. The report is built on the data from orders through the network and a survey of more than 1,200 DoorDash...
Uber Paints Picture of Future Drone-Driver Hybrid Model
Aerial drones may represent an incredible leap in foodservice technology, but there is still plenty of work to be done before we collectively get there. Uber’s Elevate division recently painted a picture of what that future model might look like as it announced its...
Amid Turmoil, Waitr Lays off Minneapolis Bite Squad Employees
Minneapolis’ StarTribune newspaper reports that Louisiana-based Waitr Holdings laid off the majority of employees at Bite Squad’s downtown Minneapolis headquarters. Waitr acquired Bite Squad in late 2018 for $321 million. The move is the latest shakeup for Waitr,...
Lyft, &pizza Pair Up on Late-Night Employee Rides
Lyft and &pizza, the tech-savvy fast-casual East Coat pizza brand, announced a new partnership to bring &pizza employees in Washington, D.C. a reliable late-night transit option. This isn’t exactly news in the off-premises world, but is another step forward in...
Grubhub, Just Salad Partner on Virtual Restaurant
Another week brings yet another example of a third-party delivery company partnering with a restaurant to launch a new virtual restaurant. This latest is New York City-based Just Salad partnering with Grubhub to launch Health Tribes, a digital-only concept that...
Delivery Bots ‘Paused’ After Accessibility Incident
Stuck because a robot won’t move out of the way might sound like a dumb episode of “Black Mirror,” but that was the reality for a doctoral student on the University of Pittsburgh campus. Emily Ackerman, a chemical engineering student who uses a wheelchair, said she...