Apparently someone thinks there’s big money to be made delivering cheap, fast meals to consumers. SpoonRocket, which promises to deliver $8 meals to customers’ doors in 15 minutes or less, has captured the attention of customers in San Francisco and the East Bay. And that has attracted investors like Foundation Capital and General Catalyst, which sources say have together invested at least $10 million in the startup.
SpoonRocket, which declined to comment on the funding, has a simple goal — to be the fastest and most convenient meal option for its customers. The company does that by providing a food delivery service which makes a couple of meal choices available each day for $8 each. And those meals are generally delivered within minutes of an order being placed, either online or via mobile app.
The company is able to deliver those meals so quickly because it keeps them warm in specialized heating compartments that are actually built into its cars. And the limited number of food options means that it can produce its meal options at scale, lowering the price and making them more widely available.
While SpoonRocket has seen a lot of traction in both the East Bay and San Francisco proper, it’s hardly the only startup tackling the food delivery market. There are legacy options like Seamless and GrubHub, which by the way, just went public. There’s Postmates, which just raised $16 million from Spark Capital as it seeks to expand into new markets.
And then there’s Sprig.
A few weeks ago, San Francisco-based Sprig announced that it had raised $10 million from Greylock Partners. Sprig has a similar model, in which it also offers a limited number of high-quality choices with fast delivery times at a low price.
While SpoonRocket seeks to serve its meals all day long (although in San Francisco it has limited its launch to lunchtime orders), so far Sprig has focused mostly on dinner delivery, specifically on weekdays. It’s also slightly pricier, at $10 per meal with a $2 delivery charge.
Still, the similarity in the model — and the amount of money raised by both Sprig and SpoonRocket — points to a lot of people thinking there’s a lot of money to be made by delivering fast, wholesome, healthy food at an attractive price point.
SpoonRocket, which was a Y Combinator graduate last year, had previously raised $2.5 million in seed funding.