Alcohol delivery App Thirstie Pours Itself a Double, Acquires DrinkFly
The race to be the highest app that people use to order alcohol for delivery took a new turn on Wednesday.
the big apple-primarily based Thirstie has obtained DrinkFly, a Chicago-primarily based company additionally in the alcohol supply business. With this deal, Thirstie gets into four new markets, bringing its coverage to greater than 22 cities, says CEO Devaraj Southworth. The DrinkFly founders will remain onboard, operating in Chicago for Thirstie. Southworth would not reveal the dimensions of the deal, but it surely was once for cash and equity.
DrinkFly had been growing its sales, he says, and Thirstie needs to additional scale up the trade. “It’s going to assist us in the Chicago market,” he says. “We had a presence there; it’s going to make our presence so much greater.” The multitude of craft brewers throughout Illinois, who could develop into supplier-companions, also made DrinkFly attractive.
Consolidation in this trade should be anticipated given the a large number of on-demand firms all competing to get wine, beer, and spirits to consumers’ doorways within one hour. different the big apple-primarily based firms in this area of interest embody Minibar and Swill. Boston’s Drizly deals a similar service. Even Amazon got into this market final yr, starting off with carrier in Seattle after which ny.
Like a few of its rivals, Thirstie is largely a advertising and marketing platform and does no longer grasp stock nor make deliveries itself. Orders are fulfilled through local collaborating liquor outlets, who also handle verifying the buyer is of legal drinking age, Southworth says.
“nowadays, we’ve got about 340 retail partners,” he says. through not coming into logistics, the corporate retains prices down whereas tapping the experience of the liquor shops.
Southworth says the supply trade is actually turning into commoditized, so ultimate June his company began an editorial part known as The Craft supplying guidelines, tales, and advice on cocktails, wine, beer, meals, and native events. along with giving Thirstie some clout as specialists in these areas, Southworth says it boosted industry via encouraging greater, repeat orders.
“We’re committed to this,” he says. “We introduced on the pinnacle of content material from JackThreads, who is aware of a factor about content to commerce.”
to this point Thirstie has raised greater than $ 2 million from private traders, Southworth says. the corporate is focusing on its current platform somewhat than pursuing too many ideas at the similar time. as an example, Thirstie has now not jumped at the mail order-subscription business model, the place samples of merchandise are sent to shoppers—like Birchbox or buck Shave club. “that’s one thing we’ve been approached with numerous times.” Southworth says. “it really works for some industries. It’s something that we’re having a look at, nevertheless it needs to slot in with our content-to-commerce methods.”
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