App Brings Gourmet Food

Startup Goldbely now offers consumers a way to order gourmet entrees from around the U.S. via mobile. Goldbely launched its first mobile app via iOS and includes a next-day shopping option.

The app lets consumers browse options like “Eats from NYC” or “The Best from the Midwest” and when each item is added to the cart, consumers can choose a preferred delivery date.

When checking out the Goldbely app, guests will note that the luxury of having gourmet food shipped on demand doesn’t come cheap. For example, a Chicago pizza on the Goldbely app runs for $59, a Key Lime pie runs for $69, and pastrami sandwich that feeds up to two is $60.

Goldbely was founded back in 2013 and the idea behind the app was to allow customers from across the U.S. to experience the best of an area’s local cuisine, while restaurants get to expand their product circulation. There may be an extra charge that includes customized shipping preparations they have to make, like flash-freezing or using dry ice, for example.

The startup raised $3M from Intel Capital and various other investors to expand operations and further develop its niche market.

While other companies offer delivered meals on-demand, Goldbely’s primary focus is bringing consumers specialty foods from various cities and also providing the option to gift gourmet meals as well.

The company prefers to partner with restaurants that currently already ship food, though not necessarily at scale, because Goldbely already has built some infrastructure around both packaging and shipping.

Goldbely says their challenge is to deliver gourmet food quickly, scale the business rapidly, and maintaining quality, all while claiming a stake in the market before competitors try to do the same. But they already have the advantage of experience: Co-founder Joe Ariel previously served as CEO at Delivery.com and CEO and founder of Eats.com.

Goldbely reports that the average order is around $70, while 80% of customers are outside the top 10 U.S. markets. Revenue is also growing at 500% year-over-year, and it expects to start profiting by this December.