Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Cargo

Hershey’s and Cargo Lay Cadbury Eggs in Ubers To Attract Younger Customers

Cargo, Uber’s exclusive provider of in-car snacks and other items, announced today it has partnered with Hershey to add some Easter-themed goodies to your next car trip. Starting today, passengers riding in Uber vehicles equipped with Cargo Boxes can grab samples or purchase treats from various Hershey brands, including Reese’s and Cadbury eggs.

Cargo equips rideshare vehicles with boxes full of things like energy bars, Advil, bottled water, and even peel-off face masks. It’s like someone crammed an airport newsstand inside an Uber vehicle and digitized the transaction process. To use the service, all you have to do is log into the Cargo app, scan a QR code on the Cargo Box or punch in the driver’s Box number, and select the items you want from a digital shopping cart. All payments are processed via the app, and once that step is done, the driver takes purchased items from the box and hands them over.

Adding Easter-themed items for purchase (and some free samples, to boot), isn’t an arbitrary move on the part of either Hershey’s or Cargo. Easter is the second-biggest holiday in the U.S. for chocolate sales. At the same time, the 35-and-under age group “say they plan on celebrating Easter and are the only age group that’s seen a consistent increase in those celebrating compared with a decade ago.” In other words, Millennials and Gen Z are target consumers for chocolate eggs and rabbits.

And where better to reach them than in transit? Armed with smartphones, these “digitally fluent” consumers are known for shopping across channels, meaning they’ll purchase in-store, online, and, increasingly, on the go. As one report put it, “technology must drive the shopping experience,” particularly for Gen Z.

Cargo’s digital-vending-machine-on-wheels model is tailor-made for this sort of shopper. Plus, given Millennial and Gen Z’s apparent affinity for Easter, the week leading up to the holiday makes sense as the time when Hershey’s would pilot this campaign.

Cargo and Uber announced their exclusive partnership in 2018, and the service raised $22.5 million in the same year.

Snack on This, Cargo Raises $22.5 Million

Cargo, the startup that helps rideshare drivers sell snacks and such inside their cars, announced today that it has raised a $22.5 million Series A round of funding led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund (h/t VentureBeat).

Founded in 2016, Cargo provides drivers with plastic containers that sit on top of a car’s center console and are filled with items like gum, lip balm, or even earbuds. Using the Cargo app, consumers can buy items during their ride, and the driver earns a commission on each purchase. Cargo says that it works with a total of 12,000 drivers who earn an added $130 a month on average.

Cargo and Uber entered into an exclusive global partnership earlier this year in a move to put more vending boxes in Uber’s fleet. That gave Cargo a nice shot in the arm, and this new money will be used to fuel even more expansion both domestically and internationally.

In addition to a nice value add for Uber drivers, more widespread adoption of Cargo gives Uber increased insight into the purchasing habits of its riders. Which snacks are most popular and where? When do people buy, how frequently, etc. On the surface, this data helps Cargo more precisely stock items by region.

But it also helps Uber, which is in the business of transporting things, whether it be people, or, in the case of Uber Eats, food. If you’re feeling peckish on the way home from work or a night out, maybe in addition to that Clif bar you just bought in the car, you can be prompted to order a Big Mac (through Uber Eat, obvs) to be delivered to the same place you’re being dropped off.

That’s probably a ways off, but it’s still an idea to snack on.

Cargo and Uber Form Exclusive Partnership to Sell Snacks on the Go

Cargo and Uber announced an exclusive global partnership yesterday that will see Cargo’s snack vending boxes inside more cars in the ride hailing giant’s fleet.

Cargo allows drivers to make a little extra scratch from their driving gig by selling snacks and small sundries from their car’s center console. That includes stuff like gum, Skittles, or lip balm—small stuff you may not bring with you on your way out for the evening. Riders select and pay for items using the Cargo app, and the company says 7,000 drivers have earned more than $1 million since the company’s launch in 2017.

The partnership with Uber comes a little more than a month after Cargo expanded to LA, and is now opening up operations in San Francisco. Cargo, which was founded in June of 2016, has raised $8.7 million in funding.

Interestingly, despite the words “global” and “exclusive,” non-Uber drivers will still be able to use Cargo. For now, payments for snacks will still go through the Cargo app, but could get baked directly into the Uber app, which would throw up a (small) barrier to other ride sharing services.

This move to monetize more of a ride comes just a couple of months after a study showing that Uber drivers earn on average $11.77 an hour (after Uber takes its cut), and that the average wage (taking out additional costs such as vehicle expenses) was $9.21 an hour. Giving drivers the option of earning additional revenue for almost no extra work is a good way of incentivizing them to stick around and stay on Uber’s platform.

SnackNation Raises $12M to Expand into Hospitality and Transportation Channels

I worked for a video game startup for a while and one of the best perks was the “wall of snacks.” Packed with free cookies, gummies, chips and more, it helped me pack on more than a few extra pounds by the time I left.

SnackNation is a startup that wants to satisfy snack cravings with food that’s better for you than gummies and chips, and the company just announced yesterday that it has raised a $12 million Series B round to help expand that mission (hat tip to Nosh). This latest round was led by 3L Capital and brings the total amount raised by SnackNation to $22.5 million.

SnackNation is a snack delivery service that “exists to inspire more conscious food decisions.” The company heavily curates its offerings, and according to Nosh, they only offer products that pass “an ingredient review and tasting panel.”

SnackNation has been focused on office snack delivery, and counts Microsoft and MailChimp among its customers. According to the SnackNation website, prices for offices start at $299 a month for 140 – 160 single-serving snacks (consumer boxes start at $9.99). SnackNation says the new money will be used to open up new distribution channels into hospitality and transportation, as well as to scale its direct-to-consumer business.

There’s no shortage of snack box subscription services out there, all of whom are looking to foist their treats on us, no matter the time of day. ZeroCater just raised $12 million to help fund its office snack endeavors. Byte Foods (one of our #FoodTech25 companies) built a more modern vending machine for fresh office snacks. As noted, SnackNation is moving into hospitality and transportation, and Cargo raised $5.5 million so Uber and Lyft drivers can sell you snacks while you ride.

With all this money and activity, it looks like the “wall of snacks” will be breaking free of the office and following me around everywhere. Good thing I work from home.

Selling Snacks to Add Revenue for Rideshare Drivers and Airbnb Hosts

There was a strong ethos of community when startups like Lyft and Airbnb helped kickstart the “sharing economy.” Lyft had passengers sit in the front seat and fistbump their drivers, and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky once remarked that his company was “in the business of meaningful experiences.”

But it looks like the kumbayah days of simply renting your spare room or backseat for some extra cashe are giving way to the capitalist world we are all familiar with. One where in addition to paying for your space, guests and passengers pony up for snacks, treats and other sundries.

Yesterday, Cargo, a startup that lets rideshare drivers sell snacks from the front seat of the car, announced that it had raised $5.5 million. Cargo is basically a container that straps to the center console. Inside are things like snack bars and breath mints–stuff you see at the counter of a convenience store. Passengers can use their mobile phone to order and pay for desired items.

According to TechCrunch, the company is in 2,500 cars on the road in NYC, Chicago, Boston and Minneapolis — with 20,000 drivers signing up for the service from all around the U.S.. Drivers get a commission and evidently earn on average an extra $100 or so a month. So wherever you are, you’re bound to encounter upsells in your Uber relatively soon.

Then there is Qvie, a company we looked at earlier this month. Qvie is a small vending machine that you can put in your Airbnb to offer wine or snacks to guests. The Qvie is just a single-item vending machine right now, but as Mike Wolf pointed out, it’s not hard to imagine them coming out with something closer to an unmanned store offering up a variety of items.

To be clear, both of these ideas seem like good ones. There have been a few times when I’ve wished for a breath mint while on a ride to a meeting. And if you’re going to rent your home out, it makes sense to offer up snacks or items people may have forgotten (toothpaste, band-aids, etc.), though I’m not sure of the legality of selling wine in your house.

But both Qvie and Cargo point to a whole selling ecosystem rising up inside the sharing economy to add incremental sales for owners and convenience for customers. Plus, consumer packaged goods companies will also want this sales data to better understand buying patterns of their products. These vending systems will get better and smarter and more prevalent.

I mean, it’s not that ridiculous to think that Domino’s will get into this game and somehow combine its pizza oven car with an Uber for a piping hot pizza pie available to grab as you arrive home after a night out. Which, when you think about it, is totally worth a fistbump.

You can hear about Spoiler Alert in our daily spoon podcast.  You can also subscribe in Apple podcasts or through our Amazon Alexa skill.