Another food delivery service is setting up shop in Seattle.
This time it’s SpoonRocket, the San Francisco-based startup that has both prepared and delivered meals in the Bay Area since July 2013.
Now the company is expanding outside California for the first time, although its initial offering is unique from what’s available in San Francisco.
In Seattle, SpoonRocket is partnering with local restaurants around the University of Washington for lunch time deliveries on campus — those hoping to have food delivered outside of the UW will need opt for another service (there are plenty in Seattle).
To celebrate its mini-launch in Seattle, SpoonRocket has partnered with popular Caribbean restaurant Paseo. Those that order on Wednesday, Feb. 11 from 11:30 p.m to 1 p.m. online or via the SpoonRocket app can get the famous Caribbean Roast Sandwich for just $1. Orders are limited to one sandwich per customer.
After Wednesday, SpoonRocket will continue delivering lunch to customers on the UW campus between 11:30 am and 1 p.m. from four restaurants: Paseo, Bomba Fusion, Thanh Vi and Banh Mi. You’ll pay retail price for menu items, plus a $3.50 delivery fee — this is how SpoonRocket makes money.
As we noted above, there are various companies in the food delivery arena operating in Seattle. Some of those include traditional services like Eat24 and GrubHub, but more recently we’ve seen an influx of food delivery startups appear like Caviar, Munchery, Postmates, Peachd, Lish, and Bitesquad.
“Seattle is known for setting trends and embracing them, and that’s a great fit with our brand,” said SpoonRocket co-founder Anson Tsui.
When asked how SpoonRocket plans to compete with other services, Tsui noted how his company can deliver within 10 minutes and charge a delivery fee “that is lower than the competition.”
As TechCrunch notes, SpoonRocket is able to keep its delivery times below 10 minutes by offering a limited number of menu items and using special heating equipment in its delivery vehicles to keep food warm.
While it may seem like there is an excess of new startups trying to deliver food more efficiently, many entrepreneurs are still bullish about the opportunities.
“There are several startups going after food, but there are over 600,000 restaurants in the U.S.,” Scott Stanford, co-founder of Sherpa Ventures and an investor in Munchery, told GeekWire last year. “If the market has already proven that it can support that many restaurants, I would argue that there is room for one, two, five, or ten more coming at it from a completely different angle.”
SpoonRocket has raised $13.5 million to date and employs almost 20.
