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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

iFood

Brazil’s iFood Delivery Service Launches an E-Bike Program for Couriers

Brazil-based delivery service iFood announced today it has launched an electric bike program for its couriers in partnership with mobility company Tembici, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. The program has launched in first-pilot phase, and will provide e-bikes, manual bikes (courtesy of Bike Sampa), and other amenities to couriers working for the iFood delivery service.

The program will be available for a flat weekly fee of R$9.90 (~$1.76 USD). That includes 24/7 access to manual bicycles through Bike Samba’s Bike Itaú app. Bike withdrawals are limited to four-hour time blocks.

Couriers that want more bells ’n’ whistles as well as access to electric bikes will pay a little more. Access to electric bikes costs an extra R$2 (~$0.36 USD) per day. That fee includes up to two trips per day lasting up to four hours each, with a four-hour interval between them. (An additional R$5 charge is included for each hour.) Today’s press release notes that bikes can go 25 km/h (15.5 mph) and have a battery range of 60 km (37 miles) as well as a pedal assistance feature.

In addition to bikes, the program will also provide what it calls an “iFood Pedal Support Point,” which is a physical location at which couriers can check out and return the bikes. The facility will also provide restrooms, water and coffee, a cell phone-charging station, and a dining area. Couriers also get masks, hand sanitizer, and other safety and hygiene items. Use of the facility costs an additional R$2 per day, separate from the fees mentioned above.

Finally, couriers that join iFood Pedal will have access to the program’s Responsa Pedal digital education course.

Providing delivery workers with more bike access seems an obvious way to fulfill more deliveries in a place like São Paulo, which is Latin America’s most densely populated city. The addition of the e-bike option could also speed up delivery times, allowing workers to complete more orders within their given timeframe and make more money. 

We had similar thoughts back in 2018 when Uber bought e-bike service Jump — though that story ended with Uber offloading Jump to Lime in May of this year. That said, Uber never formally integrated the e-bike service with its Eats business.

On the other hand, iFood is merely partnering with Tembici, not buying it, and the new program may turn out to be a much more financially sustainable endeavor that makes mobility easier for more couriers. 

Since the iFood Pedal program is in pilot stage, its availability is currently limited to a select number of couriers in São Paulo. iFood said that by the end of this year, the project plans to have more than 500 bicycles on the streets of that city.

iFood and Speedbird Aero Bringing Drone Food Delivery to Brazil

Latin American food delivery service iFood announced today it has received full regulatory approval from Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) to operate two drone food delivery routes in the city of Campinas.

IFood is working with drone company Speedbird Aero, and according to the announcement materials, this is the first time drone-assisted food deliveries have been okayed in Latin America.

The drone deliveries are set to start this October, but the food won’t be going directly to customers’ front door. IFood will use a hybrid approach that includes both drones and last-mile ground transportation. For the first route, drones will fly from a food court in Igautemi Campinas, a large shopping complex, to an iFood Hub roughly 400 meters away. It will take the drones two minutes to fly and drop off the food at the hub, which will then be picked up by drivers for final delivery.

This combination of drone + ground transport is the same approach that Uber is taking with its drone delivery here in the U.S. The advantage of flying drones between two set points is that it is just one flight path, so you don’t have to jump through as many regulatory hoops to ensure drones don’t fly over things like schools or first responder facilities.

It’s been a busy year for drone delivery as this type of service moves from theoretical to more realistic. Manna started making food deliveries by drone in Dublin, Ireland. Flytrex has been doing similar work in Iceland and making its first moves into the U.S. And drone delivery of groceries is coming to Rouses Market in Mobile, Alabama.

To be sure, we are still a ways off before we see (and hear) drones buzzing overhead bringing us our daily lattes. But with the COVID-19 pandemic still surging and re-surging in the U.S. and elsewhere, off-premesis restaurant eating is only going to get more popular as dining rooms are shunned or forced to close down.

A combination of technology advancements and societal conditions means that the sky could soon be the limit for food delivery by drone.

iFood and Domicilios.com Merge to Take on the Latin American Food Delivery Market

Brazil-based food delivery service iFood announced this week it had purchased a controlling stake in Colombian service Domicilios.com, according to TechCrunch. The deal gives iFood a 51 percent equity stake the partnership, while Delivery Hero, which owns Domicillios.com, holds the remainder. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

Behind the purchase is iFood’s ambitions to compete more fiercely with Softbank-backed delivery service Rappi, which is based in Bogota, Colombia and currently holds the top spot in terms of market share in that country. The iFood-Domicilios.com merger gives iFood a larger geographic presence in Colombia — over 12,000 restaurants across 30-plus cities. It also brings the battle for food delivery dominance to Rappi’s home turf.

Prosus-backed iFood has raised nearly $600 million to date. Rappi has raised over $1 billion. Both companies also compete in the region with Uber Eats.

Carlos Moyses, iFood’s corporate vice president for Latin American operations, said in a statement that the company hopes to expand beyond its current markets of Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil. “We are growing faster than anybody else in LatAm.” 

Meanwhile, the Latin American market is the fastest-growing one for food delivery outside of the Asia-Pacific region, with sales from delivery quadrupling between 2014 and 2019. And with the coronavirus expected to hit the region especially hard, competition for customers is likely to intensify even more as the population hunkers down.

Fabricio Bloisi, iFood’s CEO, said Colombia, in particular, was a “strategic country” for the service, hence the merging with a service headquartered in that country. As for the rest of Latin America, this new consolidation should ensure competition is more fierce than ever when it comes to gaining and retaining customers.