Quiqup, a London-based delivery startup that offers an app and service similar to Postmates in the U.S., has partnered with take-out ordering service hungryhouse to let partner restaurants outsource delivery. This can either be to add additional delivery capacity during peak hours or to let takeouts do away with their own delivery drivers altogether.
The thinking goes that quick-service restaurants don’t really want to be in the last-mile logistics business and instead can focus on what they — supposedly — do best, which is to prepare and sell food.
Specifically, the partnership gives hungryhouse restaurants on-demand access to Quiqup’s fleet of bicycles, scooters and cars, and its “underlying technology and customer support services,” similar to other B2B deals the delivery startup has previously signed, an area of business it has been quietly expanding to sit alongside its consumer-facing ‘buy and deliver me anything’ app.
It also sees Quiqup’s API being integrated into TabLink, hungryhouse’s tablet-based app/device that enables takeouts to accept orders through the service, thus allowing restaurants to instantly request a delivery driver from Quiqup in response to those orders. (Incidentally, I’m told Burger King has a similar API-level partnership with Quiqup).
In a statement, Bassel El Koussa, CEO and co-founder of Quiqup, commented: “This partnership is a great example of how Quiqup can work with any business in the way that works best for them. Whether they sell takeaway food, groceries or clothes,
our partners are able to tap into our infrastructure quickly and easily by integrating our technology into their existing systems”.
Those following the food delivery space in London/UK shouldn’t be too surprised by the partnership, however. Until very recently, hungryhouse was owned by Delivery Hero (pending regulatory approval it is being sold to rival Just Eat), and Delivery Hero is also an early investor in Quiqup.
At the time of the latter’s Series A, the two companies talked up a potential partnership. “Given Quiqup’s expertise in last mile delivery and Delivery Hero’s global scale, there are extensive synergies and knowledge to be shared between both groups,” read the press release.
What is more noteworthy, however, is that this isn’t the first time a startup has tried to offer takeouts who already deliver the chance to fire or augment their own drivers in favour of outsourcing. Delivery Hero’s own Valk Fleet had a good stab at it, before imploding in rather spectacular fashion.
And, more recently, Just Eat announced that it was partnering with Stuart in Paris to offer takeouts on its marketplace the same. Given that Just Eat is currently in the process of acquiring hungryhouse and Stuart also operates in London, this is one to keep a close eye on.