Delivery Service Caviar Raises $13M for Expansion

Caviar, an up and coming food delivery service currently available in San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, and DC, has raised $13 million in funding from Tiger Global's venture fund. According to the Wall Street Journal, what differentiates Caviar from other delivery sites like Grub Hub/Seamless is that it "helps high-end restaurants ... sell and deliver anything on their menu to customers who can't come in for a meal." Eater NY adds that "the delivery fee and the fact that the restaurants are curated from the perspective of the food enthusiast" also set it apart. That means customers can now get delivery from places like NYC's Mission Cantina, San Francisco's 4505 Meats, Seattle's Cafe Lago, and DC's Toki Underground.

The service charges users a fee of $9.99 for a delivery, no matter how large the order. Caviar's chief executive Jason Wang tells the WSJ, that the service once "delivered $5,000 worth of food items for the flat fee of $9.99 to one location in the past." Wang also notes that they will soon offer a bill-splitting option to "make large orders easier for business customers and groups."

According to TechCrunch, Caviar plans to use use the latest round of funding (the company raised $2 million in 2013) to expand the service into new markets. The company is already established in San Francisco, Seattle, and New York City. Caviar soft-launched yesterday in Washington D.C., and it expects "to add a new city each week for the next six weeks." The ambition is big: A job listing reads: "Our goal is to be in every major city in the world, starting with the United States."

· Caviar Raises $13M to Challenge Grubhub, Help Top Chefs Deliver [WSJ]
· Curated Food-Delivery Startup Caviar Raises $15 Million Led By Tiger Global [TechCrunch]
· Inside Caviar, a New Premium Food Delivery Service [Eater NY]
· All Delivery Coverage on Eater [-E-]