Today in Restaurant and Grocery Tech: Uber Launches Ultrafast Grocery Service in Paris; Chili’s Taps Drone Delivery

Today in restaurant and grocery tech news, Uber Eats partners with French grocery chain Carrefour to launch 15-minute grocery delivery in Paris, and Brinker International teams up with drone delivery company Flytrex. Plus, Blaze Pizza CMO Vincent Szwajkowski tells PYMNTS how digital features are helping the chain keep up with consumers’ evolving needs.

Blaze Pizza on Firing up Mobile-First Experiences That Go Long on Loyalty

When Blaze Pizza’s digital orders grew 150% year over year in just one week during the pandemic, the fast-casual chain knew it had to overhaul its mobile experience or lose customers. In the Order To Eat Tracker, Blaze’s Vincent Szwajkowski details how innovations such as app-only menu items and mobile-oriented rewards helped the chain meet patrons’ new needs.

Uber Drives 15-Minute Grocery Delivery in Paris

Uber is driving into Paris with 15-minute grocery delivery, taking on the many rival startups in Europe all looking for a piece of the store-to-door delivery pie. The rideshare and food delivery giant expanded its partnership with the French grocery chain Carrefour to launch the service — Carrefour Sprint — which is available on the Uber Eats app starting Tuesday (Oct. 26), according to multiple media reports.

Fabric Snags $200M in Series C Fundraising

On-demand fulfillment platform Fabric on Tuesday (Oct. 26) closed a $200 million Series C fundraising round, giving the company a valuation of $1 billion, bringing its outside investment total to $336 million.

Drone Delivery Expands as Robots, Humans Race to Meet Consumers’ On-Demand Food Needs

As consumers, restaurants and third parties continue to struggle with the economics of delivery, the race to find alternatives to using human drivers is heating up. For its part, Flytrex, a Tel Aviv-based drone delivery company that promises to fulfill food orders within five minutes, announced on Tuesday (Oct. 26) that it is expanding to its third market in Holly Springs, North Carolina.

Gearing up to Go Public, Sweetgreen’s Aggressive Digital Efforts May Be Misdirected

Sweetgreen may be making major investments in digitizing its restaurants, but for a restaurant chain so focused on technology, it has made some odd choices when it comes to one of the most significant digital drivers of revenue: loyalty rewards.