Delivery Businesses Had A Good 2018. What's Next?
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A lot can change in a year. In January, Uber Technologies Inc. was still in the hot seat for its years of scandal and infamy. It took money from SoftBank Group Corp. at a blended $54 billion valuation, an embarrassing markdown for the ride-hailing titan. A few months later, on-demand darling Munchery laid off 30 percent of its staff, and packaging service Shyp shut its doors for good. This followed the demise of a litany of other food-delivery upstarts like Maple, Sprig and SpoonRocket.
All told, it wasn’t looking good for on-demand startups, widely assumed to be overhyped and overleveraged. But as the year wore on, investors started to see the light.