Boolanga Business Bites

Your Personal Navigator in the Ever-Evolving World of Food Delivery

Week 15/04/2024

Remember to share this newsletter with your colleagues!

?? Food Delivery

DoorDash is using Washington D.C. as a test market to help dashers become safer drivers. It involves the DoorDash app drivers use to fill your food delivery orders (News on your side).

Finnish food delivery and technology company Wolt goes live with Wolt Ads service following beta period. Following a beta period, the company is now looking to scale this across its 27 markets ( Retail Tech Innovation Hub).

Objections over 20-hour alcohol delivery service. Plans to run an alcohol delivery business for 20 hours every day have attracted a wave of objections from residents (BBC).

Invesco marks up Swiggy’s valuation by 18% to $12.7B from last fundraise. The development comes weeks after US-based Baron Capital—another key investor in Swiggy—raised the valuation to $12.1 billion (Your Story).

Swiggy’s new feature empowers pet parents to report a missing pet directly on the app. Swiggy, an on-demand convenience platform has unveiled Swiggy Pawlice to its app (Medianews4u).

SoftBank-Backed Unicorn Rappi Hires CFO to Get Ready for IPO. There is no set time for listing as company reached break even (Bloomberg).

Delivery service Rappi is getting ready for a future initial public offering (IPO). The company, which is one of Latin America’s most valuable startups, does not have a timeline for an IPO but aims to be ready for one “when it makes sense” (PYMNTS).

Rappi Goes for Dominance in Mexico with $110 Million Bet. Colombia’s super-app Rappi is pouring US$110 million into its Mexican operations by year’s end, aiming to dominate the country’s booming food and product delivery sector (Nearshore Americas).

Meituan overhauls core meal delivery operation to address challenges. Meituan has pushed further restructuring in its core food delivery unit with an announcement on naming younger people to management level, in the company’s latest round of changes this year as it looks to adapt to increasing external competition (Technode).

Coupang's abrupt fee hike baffles Yogiyo, Baemin. Yogiyo and Baedal Minjok (Baemin) are baffled by Coupang's decision to increase its membership fee, as the two food delivery service operators have ended up spending unexpected costs due to a free delivery race initiated by Coupang Eats, according to industry officials, Sunday (The Korea Times).

Uber Eats launches TikTok-style video feature to promote new food products. Uber Eats soft-launched its video feature where merchants can showcase their food and beverage in hopes of better sales (Dexerto).

Instacart, DoorDash, and other apps appear to be trying to roll back Seattle's new laws for gig workers. Their efforts targeted the workers via surveys and requests for testimonials to send to the city (Business Insider India).

Food delivery apps leaving out nutritional info. Outdated NSW menu labelling laws are allowing large food outlets to leave out nutritional information on food delivery apps, a study has revealed (Shepparton News).

Zomato's improved profits, 260% stock surge leaves analysts scrambling. The nearly 260% surge in Zomato since last April has made it difficult for consensus to keep up, but expectations continue to rise (Business Standard).

Uber Eats rider banned for delivering takeaway on horse. A video of Stanley Chen riding the animal in Sydney, Australia, was posted to social media earlier this week (Metro).

?Q-Commerce

Grocery delivery giant Getir in talks about radical restructuring. Once-valued at ￡9.5bn, Getir is working with advisers on plans that could see it broken up or resort to an emergency restructuring mechanism, Sky News learns (Sky News).

Getir moves beyond dark store only model. Rapid grocer Getir has started listing products from third-party bricks & mortar retailers on its app, marking its first move beyond a dark store-only model in the UK (The Grocer).

Quick-commerce grows beyond grocery; Tribe Capital’s latest India bet. Quick-commerce platforms like Zepto, Swiggy’s Instamart, and Zomato-owned Blinkit are seeing a surge in sales for non-grocery items as they take on ecommerce rivals (The Economic Times).

?? Grocery Delivery

Instacart Harnesses Generative AI To Revolutionize Grocery Delivery Experience. Grocery delivery and pickup service Instacart is not shy about adopting new technologies (Forbes).

Instacart expands delivery access through major benefits provider. Eligible members can use their grocery benefits to purchase Instacart’s stipends, known as Fresh Funds, to pay for their orders (Grocery Dive).

Supermarkets sign delivery courier ‘respect charter’. Commits retailers to reduce wait times and provide loos (The Grocer).

Shawbrook delivers Ocado Retail funding package. Ocado Retail has secured a multimillion-pound funding package from Shawbrook to strengthen its delivery capabilities across the UK (Insider media).

???? Delivery Tech

7-Eleven teams up with Meituan to trial drone delivery. On 3 April, global convenience store chain 7-Eleven announced that it has partnered with Chinese food delivery platform Meituan to trial drone delivery in Shenzhen, Guangdong (DAO Insights).

Wing Drone Delivery company in Christiansburg expands to food delivery. Food deliveries seem to be everywhere now, and in Christiansburg, they have made it a bit more interesting (10 News).

Delivery robot developer Serve Robotics sets terms for $40 million Nasdaq uplisting. Serve Robotics, a developer of autonomous delivery robots spun out of Uber, announced terms for its IPO on Tuesday (Renaissance Capital).

?? Restaurant Tech

Ghost Kitchens Are Disappearing, Squeezed by Demand and Complaints. Delivery-only operations boomed during the pandemic (The New York Times).

The rapid rise and fall of ghost kitchens. Restaurants are scaling back 'ghost kitchen' operations due to added stress and customer complaints (Business Insider Nederland).

Your readership means a lot, thank you!