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A few weeks back, from the comfort of my home near Seattle, I bought a bottle of rum through Drizly as a gift for a friend of mine down in Los Angeles. Drizly connected me with a local market in my friend’s neighborhood and a few clicks later, a bottle of booze was on its way to his front door. The whole experience was surprisingly delightful.
Evidently I’m not the only one who thought Drizly was good at boozin’ people up because Uber announced this week that it was buying Drizly for $1.1 billion in (mostly) stock and cash.
But the booze news didn’t stop there. Also this week, online wine marketplace Vivino announced that it raised a $155 million Series D round of funding. This brings the total amount Vivino has raised to $221 million. That’s a lotta grapes.
It makes sense that money is flowing into this particular vice right now. The pandemic, lockdowns and restaurant and bar closures resulted in sizeable boost for home booze sales last year. And while the end of our COVID nightmare may be on the horizon, after months of staying at home, people are now accustomed to ordering meals, groceries and yes, booze for delivery.
Additionally, no one really knows what bars will look like post-pandemic. The idea of jamming into a night club with hundreds of other sweaty, yelling people may not have the same appeal it once did for a lot of people.
Buying drinks online for small gatherings in our homes, however, may have lasting appeal for consumers (and investors).
Spoon Plus: The Delivery Robot Market Report
It won’t be long before delivery robots are rolling around our city streets and sidewalks. What will on-demand rover robots mean for grocery and restaurant retail? What will always-available robots mean for consumers? What are the different market approaches from Starship, Kiwi, Nuro, Refraction and other startups in the space?
We examine these questions and break down the coming opportunities and challenges in our latest Spoon Plus deep dive. The Delivery Robot Market Report will outline the key players in the U.S and around the world, examine regulatory issues and update you on the state of the market.
The Delivery Robot Market Report is available right now to all our Spoon Plus Members. Not a member? You’re missing out! Spoon Plus members get access to all of our market reports, maps and deep dives that give you an advanced understanding of where the food tech industry is headed. Plus Spoon Plus annual memberships come with a ticket to our Smart Kitchen Summit, where you get to meet other food tech execs from across the industry. Sign up today!
More Headlines
Online Grocer Good Eggs Raises $100M, Plans Southern California Expansion – Company said it had revenues of more than $100 million serving just the Bay Area in 2020.
TurtleTree Scientific and Dyadic to Develop Affordable Growth Factors for Cell-Based Proteins at Scale – Through this partnership, the two will develop recombinant food-grade growth factors for proteins that can be grown in high yields at lower costs in bioreactors.
McDonald’s Starts Testing McPlant Burger in Europe – The plant-based burger, co-developed with Beyond Meat, is officially on the chain’s menus in Denmark and Sweden.
Brightloom Raises $15M, Launches a ‘Customer Growth Platform’ to Help Restaurants With Their Data – The company, which started out as Eatsa, is moving away from its connected cubby concept.
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