Order Mapper, which makes apps for ordering a variety of goods (starting with pizza) from any business, just announced that it has raised a $550,000 round led by Vegas Tech Fund.
The company’s flagship product is Order Pizza, an app that allows users to order pizza from any pizzeria that you choose. The app submits orders automatically, via phone call, email, fax, or website (depending on what the restaurant accepts). Co-founder and CEO Jim Bricker told me via email that humans only step in when an order doesn’t go through. For example, if someone tries to order from a pizzeria that doesn’t deliver to them, Order Mapper will text the customer to ask if it’s okay to order from Pizza Hut or Domino’s.
Order Pizza has already delivered orders to 30 percent of the pizzerias in the U.S. It doesn’t need to have any kind of preexisting relationship to place an order, but Bricker said the company is working with the top 50 chains to add full menus. Apparently the biggest challenge is handling “rush times like Friday nights and during the Super Bowl,” but Bricker added that the app actually helps pizzerias take more orders, since they don’t have to devote as much employee time to “sitting on the phone.”
The company also offers an Order Beer app in Dallas (it’s a graduate of the Dallas-based Tech Wildcatters incubator). Bricker said he plans to expand the platform to include flowers, massage, and other types of food, and he wants to launch internationally.
Order Mapper was founded in 2009, and it was part of the first group of startups backed by 500 Startups’ Twilio Micro-Fund back in 2010. When I asked why the company hasn’t raised a significant seed round before this, Bricker said:
We started when people still didn’t know what apps were and had difficulty raising money from traditional investors. We survived the most challenging phase of launching a startup and investors are now eager to help bring the vision of Order Mapper to the masses.
In addition to Vegas Tech Fund (whose partners include Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh), Bricker said a number of angels invested in the round.