Research from Cornell University recently found, for example, that over 40 percent of adults in the U.S. Of course, for those who remember the spectacular failure of online food companies like Webvan, Kozmo and HomeRuns, this whole “tech in your kitchen” and online ordering jibber-jabber probably sounds familiar - and not in a good way. And, as it turns out, people are pretty busy. (Compared to 2008, when investment in food was less than $50 million.) Plus, when you get right down to it: People need to eat. Just ask venture capitalists, who collectively poured $350 million into food startups over the last year. The high margins at scale (in certain verticals within the industry, mind) are part of the reason why the “food tech” market has been so hot lately. Together, the companies will be in over 500 cities, and that definitely counts as scale. So, if the merger between GrubHub and Seamless is about growth rather than cutting costs (or corners), then scale helps explain it. However, once the online food ordering business model scales, it has the potential to generate a lot of cash (from taking a fixed slice of every transaction). For any business, scaling is an expensive proposition (requiring tons of investment), and often becomes a profit-busting necessity as a result. That being said, the food industry has been slow to innovate and adopt new technologies over the years, leaving plenty of room for disruption.
Plus, the business model isn’t particularly complicated, which makes it replicable. And like the daily deals market, food ordering has traditionally had a fairly low barrier to entry, which helps explain why we seem to see a new startup pop up in this space every week.
If the online food-ordering and delivery market is roughly where daily deals were three-plus years ago, then the deal essentially creates the Groupon of food delivery. If these rumors are true, the merger comes at a good time for the arch rivals, who have been seeing mounting competition of late from a laundry list of new startups entering the space, including increasingly popular alternatives like, ChowNow, Munchery (meals from local chefs), Campus Special, eat24 or the bigs of Europe, like Delivery Hero and Just-Eat. But they have a nice ring to them, don’t they? But as far as the name goes, we’re hoping for Grubless. The two companies would not confirm on the record on any of the above. While our sources tell us that the talks are serious, the terms of the merger are not yet clear and, of course, any potential deal could fall through.įurthermore, it’s not yet clear what kind of synergies would take place, how management of the new entity would be structured or even what the new business will be called. Over the last few days, we’ve been hearing about a merger between two of the largest companies in the space. Rumor has it that “arch rivals” GrubHub and Seamless are in talks which could see them join forces as part of a merger. Today, thanks to the maturation of the web, digital tech, and smartphones now in seemingly every pocket, startups are finding it easier than ever before to build scalable solutions to finally address the many inefficiencies in our food manufacturing, production and distribution systems.Īs interest in food tech balloons, one area in particular already appears to be at the tipping point: Online and mobile food delivery.
0 kommentar(er)
