Food ordering and delivery startup raises $7 million in funding

OrderUp is a startup company originating in Baltimore that provides residents with a way to order food online. However, this business is different than companies such as Seamless and Eat24, because it offers not only ordering tools but also delivery options. Additionally, The Washington Post reports that the company is focused on creating and maintaining a sales base in mid-size cities, such as Phoenix and Denver. 

Revolution Ventures and former LivingSocial chief executive Tim O'Shaughnessy recently invested $7 million in the company, which will be used to fuel marketing campaigns as well as logistics operations. Revolution managing partner Tige Savage says he believes in the future of OrderUp because "we take for granted that we can order food online. The fact of the matter is in a majority of locations you can't do that. There's no good food ordering options outside of the major metropolitan areas." OrderUp seeks to provide services to populations with high demand and a low supply of delivery options. 

Another aspect of OrderUp's business strategy, aside from location, is to remain flexible in its work with restaurants. For example, if a business has its own delivery system it can opt to just make use of OrderUp's ordering solution but not its delivery options. Other companies prefer to offload their entire order and delivery systems to OrderUp in order to enjoy the ease and efficiency of having a third-party provider. 

OrderUp is currently operating in 35 markets, and has identified 500 more as fitting its consumer profile. The business fulfills over 10,000 food delivery orders each week, and it is this growing demand that has led investors to take a risk with the fledgling business. The quick and successful growth of OrderUp shows the increasing demand for fast and efficient transportation and delivery logistics, which are offerings that can only be provided on such a massive scale by a qualified third-party logistics provider.