Maple leaves
Food delivery company Maple has ceased operations in New York and announced a tie-up with Deliveroo. Maple started up its business in New York two years ago, with a business model that involving taking full control of the supply chain: sourcing the food, preparing the meals, delivering the goods and also developing the technology platform that made the whole process work.
In a blog posted on the company website yesterday (8 May), however, co-founders Caleb Merkl and Akshay Navle said that the “next step in Maple’s story involved a shift from our current approach”.
The Maple co-founders continued: “It became clear that we needed to close the Maple operation here in New York and look for a partner with scale—one that would allow us to leverage all that we had built across a broader platform.
“Having landed on this strategy, we reconnected with a group that we knew shared our vision of delivering great food to as many people as possible—a UK-based food delivery company called Deliveroo.
“Deliveroo has developed from a local London affair started four years ago to a business operating across 12 countries and 140 cities globally. Given the overlap in our goals and the significant scale of Deliveroo’s operations, working together makes sense. As a result, some members of the Maple team will join Deliveroo operations in London, and our technology will be used to help accelerate growth and efficiency across the platform.”
