Minibar Liquor Delivery Startup Acquires Competitor Booze Carriage

Minibar, an on-demand liquor-delivery platform operational in 13 cities, has announced the acquisition of one of its biggest competitors, Booze Carriage. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Minibar launched in February of 2014 and has since grown to 13 cities, with 50 percent month-over-month user growth, though the company won’t be much more specific than that. Minibar says it’s tracking to do eight-figure revenues this year.

The service is elegant and simple. Minibar partners with a few key vendors in each market and lists their inventory on the app. The vendor receives orders through the service, runs the order through their own payments system and sends out a delivery man to complete the exchange. Minibar then takes a transaction fee at the end of each month from those partners for orders placed through the app.

Booze Carriage came along much earlier, launching in 2012 in New York City, and offered a similar delivery platform. Booze Carriage grew a user base of more than 25,000 customers in the past two years, which will be transferred over to Minibar.

Founders Lara Crystal and Lindsey Andrews explained that Booze Carriage also has a solid corporate client list with an average order size between $300 and $500.

The on-demand space is chock full of liquor-delivery startups looking to grab a piece of the boozy pie. Just yesterday, Thirstie closed a $1.1 million round of funding, and they are but one in a long list of up-and-comers.

Minibar claims to be the largest player in the NYC space, though that’s difficult to confirm without a clear view into each company’s financials, but the Booze Carriage acquisition certainly helps.