Peach is already growing quickly with its lunch delivery service, now serving mid-day meals to more than 250 offices in the Seattle region and recently expanding to San Diego.
But the 25-person startup is also finding success with a new catering service and “Peach Perks” program that utilize the company’s technology and logistics platform.
Peach raised $2.7 million and launched about one year ago, partnering with different restaurants each day and delivering boxed lunches to offices around the Seattle area. Peach members receive a text each morning for that day’s selected dish, and customers have an hour to place an order by responding with a “yes” text — their food shows up an hour later at a pre-determined office space.
Now, though, Peach is expanding beyond the original model with a catering service. Facebook’s Seattle office, Porch, and others are now using Peach to cater meals for their employees.
Companies can order platter style meals or the traditional Peach boxed lunches, depending on preference and size of the group. Peach Catering Product Director Chet Kittleson said that the service has grown revenue by 100 percent in the past two months.
“We’re able to provide the convenience of a traditional catering company — one point-of-contact, one invoice, we know the ins and outs of your catering needs, etc. — but can provide a huge variety of cuisine types all from local restaurants,” he noted.
“Peach Perks” is another new offering that lets companies subsidize lunch for their employees. Many tech companies have their own in-house chefs to cook food for workers, and Peach allows startups without a kitchen or cooking staff provide a similar perk.
Nick Wood, the “Happy Manager” at Porch, said he likes not managing inventory or costs associated with providing food to employees.
“We can reward and recognize our employees with the simple click of a button,” he said.
Peach’s early success is noteworthy given the competitive space in which it operates. However, there clearly is plenty of room for opportunity in the food delivery arena, as evidenced by Postmates’ $80 million round announced earlier this week.
