Online Bulk Retailer Boxed Acquiring MaxDelivery

Online bulk retailer Boxed is set to acquire MaxDelivery, an on-demand grocery delivery service for New York City consumers.

As Grocery Dive reported Tuesday (Nov. 30), the deal, set to close in December, lets Boxed expand into dark store fulfillment and rapid delivery of fresh groceries on demand. The company also plans to scale its same-day delivery service to new and as yet unnamed markets.

As part of the acquisition — the financial terms of which were not disclosed — MaxDelivery Founder, President and CTO Chris Siragusa will become senior vice president of operations at Boxed.

Founded in 2004, MaxDelivery bills itself as a “gourmet” grocery service that can provide fresh foods and organic/local products, as well a household and pharmacy items, to its customers inside of an hour.

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Boxed, which went public earlier this year through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger, is hoping the firm’s dark store fulfillment expertise, coupled with its own software, will optimize its operations and scale to new markets.

“Boxed customers have expressed how they value fresh groceries and we are excited to be able to deliver a more comprehensive product offering while benefiting from a [complementary] business model with similarly high average order values as Boxed,” Boxed Co-founder and CEO Chieh Huang said in a statement.

“In the months after closing, we plan to implement MaxDelivery’s model into several additional regions as we generate value for the entire Boxed ecosystem. We believe that MaxDelivery will also benefit from the use of Boxed software technology as it becomes a client of our Software business.”

The acquisition puts Boxed in the same company of other online-only supermarkets such as Farmstead that offer same-day delivery and a wide range of items. However, the company will have to compete with the rise of brick-and-mortar grocery chains that have expanded their services and moved into the dark store space as well.