Kavita Kumar reported last week at the Minneapolis Star Tribune Online that, “While the restaurant delivery industry has been exploding in recent years, a Minneapolis-based start-up thinks it has cornered an untapped piece of the market: big office buildings in the suburbs.
“‘If you look downtown, it’s a crowded space,’ said Ben Cattoor, CEO of Foodsby. ‘But once you start breaking out of that high-density area, where delivery is a very difficult game, that’s where our model works. … We focus on the outskirts.’
“Investors have bought into the concept. Foodsby recently closed on a $5.9 million round of Series A funding led by Greycroft Partners, Corazon Capital and Rally Ventures.”
The article explained that, “Foodsby already is up and running in seven markets — the Twin Cities, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Atlanta, Kansas City, Mo., Charlotte, N.C., and Des Moines. The company works with more than 4,000 businesses and has more than 700 restaurant partners such as Davanni’s, Subway, Chili’s and Leeann Chin.”
The Star Tribune article indicated that, “Founded in 2012, Foodsby was inspired by the multiple trips [Ben Cattoor, CEO of Foodsby] saw a restaurant delivery person make to his Inver Grove Heights office when he was an accountant at CHS Inc.
“‘I watched the same driver show up five times in 45 minutes,’ he said.
“Figuring there had to be a better way to coordinate such deliveries, he created the Foodsby platform. When office buildings sign up for the service, workers can see what restaurants are scheduled to make deliveries to their office that day and place an order.”
Last week’s article added that, “There’s no minimum order required and tipping is not expected, but there is a $2 delivery fee.
“The advantage for restaurants, Cattoor said, is that they can schedule all of their deliveries at once.”
