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Gopuff Extolls the Power of First-Party Operations

By Nicholas Upton | January 20, 2022

When the food-on-demand space exploded into the mainstream, it was initially a software play. Aggregators and delivery providers sought to have the fewest hard assets as possible, even eschewing employees in favor of the burgeoning gig-work industry. Gopuff SVP of Business Daniel Folkman said company founders Rafael Ilishayev and Yakir Gola started the company in 2013 with almost the opposite way of thinking. And they didn’t take any venture capital with scale-at-all-cost strings attached. “We spent those first years thinking through how we would make the business work if we […]

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After Mega-Investment, ezCater Shifts Strategy, Plans IPO

By Tom Kaiser | January 13, 2022

After a $100M investment, ezCater is more efficient than ever and planning an eventual IPO.

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Uber Eats’ Head of Dark Kitchens Joins C3

By Tom Kaiser | January 13, 2022

Pasha Mehran, formerly Uber Eats’ head of dark kitchens, joined C3 as chief strategy officer.

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Uber Eats, Visa Announce Small Business Grants

By Tom Kaiser | January 13, 2022

Uber Eats and Visa have teamed up on a $1 million grant program that will target small businesses that are currently active on Uber Eats in 10 U.S. cities.

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Flipdish Nabs $100M in Funding

By Tom Kaiser | January 13, 2022

Flipdish received a $100 million investment led by Tencent raising its valuation to more than $1.25 billion.

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Checkers, Presto Embark on Major AI Voice Rollout

By Nicholas Upton | January 13, 2022

AI voice ordering is rolling out in a big way under a new partnership between the fast-food giant Checkers and tech partner Presto. The pair announced a plan to roll out an automated voice ordering assistant to all of the fast-food giant’s 267 company-operated locations. It marks by far the largest rollout of the technology, which continues to be tested across the drive-thru space. Checkers CEO Frances Allen said there were two big reasons the company committed to such a mass rollout: the upsell potential and, of course, staffing. Upselling […]

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Online Grocery Sales Neared $100B in 2021

By Arthur Robert | January 13, 2022

With sales of $97.7 billion, digital channels accounted for 13 percent of all grocery sales in the United States in 2021, according to Brick Meets Click’s State of the US eGrocery Market report.

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Olo CEO Noah Glass: Three Predictions for 2022

By Nicholas Upton | January 13, 2022

Olo CEO Noah Glass shared his three top predictions for 2022 as the company embarks on its first full year as a public company. Aside from going public, Glass and Olo (NYSE: OLO) had a pretty good year as one of the go-to enterprise solutions for omnichannel restaurant transactions. He wrapped up 2021 and looked ahead during the 2022 ICR conference, which was held virtually for another year amid the omicron surge. The pandemic, while ugly, drove a lot of enterprise restaurant brands to rethink their technology stack. Several, Glass […]

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Three Ways Omnivore Connects Restaurants with Digital

By fodnews | January 12, 2022

*This is content sponsored by Omnivore. The pace of digital transformation in the restaurant industry is only accelerating. Omnivore CEO Dan Singer said keeping up in that marathon requires more open, efficient ways of connecting to digital tools. “Just start with the pandemic, you think about what happened immediately: contactless payment, drive-thru, third-party, all of this is the new normal. That spurred the digital journey,” said Singer. Payments anywhere, everywhere Digital payments offer evidence of the continued shift for consumers. A recent survey from consulting firm Deloitte found that nearly […]

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Delivery Hero Acquires Majority Stake in Glovo

By Nicholas Upton | January 6, 2022

Another global acquisition gives a little insight into the complicated world of international food delivery companies as Berlin-based Delivery Hero announced it was buying additional shares in Glovo, which is headquartered in Barcelona. Delivery Hero is set to acquire a 39.4 percent stake in the company, on top of the 44 percent it already had. Niklas Östberg, founder and CEO of Delivery Hero, said the deal is the next step in a long relationship. “The Delivery Hero team has admired and supported Glovo for many years. They have been frontrunners […]

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