Delivery tech startup Gopuff acquires rideOS for $115M to bolster its last-mile logistics

Less than a year after goPuff acquired BevMo for $350 million, the Philadelphia-headquartered Consumer goods and food delivery service startup announced today that it has entered an agreement to buy San Francisco’s rideOS for $115 million to accelerate innovation and bolster its last-mile logistics.

In a company blog post, GoPuff said the addition of the rideOS team “will spearhead technology innovation in advanced delivery, routing, and logistics, enabling Gopuff to deliver a consistent and positive customer experience as we expand into international geographies, high-density cities, and new verticals.”

The acquisition wasn’t surprising. As we reported in March, GoPuff raised a whopping $1.5 billion at an $8.9 billion valuation. With billions of dollars in the war chest, GoPuff has the money to buy a dozen of startups and dominate the delivery space.

Founded in June 2017 by two founding members of Uber’s Advanced Technology Division on mapping and self-driving vehicle technology, rideOS builds cutting-edge transportation marketplace and mapping technologies. Their core technologies are flexible and can support human-driven vehicles, self-driving vehicles, delivery bots, and drones. rideOS designs and builds next-generation marketplace and mapping services that can be utilized by ride-hailing companies, OEMs, logistics providers, and governments to operate on-demand transportation services for both self-driving and human-operated fleets. rideOS’s mission is to accelerate the safe, global roll-out of next-generation transport.

“rideOS is among the best mapping, dispatching, and routing technology firms in the industry, and we are thrilled to have them lead innovation in key sectors for Gopuff,” Gopuff Senior Vice President of Product and Growth Sharad Sundaresan said in the post. “This investment will enable Gopuff to continually improve the customer experience in more complex geographies as we continue to be a leader in the instant needs category worldwide.”

rideOS Co-Founder and CEO Justin Ho said in the post: “We see this as a unique opportunity to scale our culture, values, team, products and technology for a company at the forefront of defining the instant needs economy. Given Gopuff’s exponential growth, we expect to significantly increase our headcount by the end of this year, expanding our presence in Silicon Valley, Pittsburgh, and Berlin.”

Launched in 2013 by two college students Rafael Ilishayev and Yakir Gola while at Drexel University, the Pennsylvania, PA-based GoPuff delivers daily essentials and groceries in minutes across over 500 U.S. cities. The startup currently operates more than 250 micro-fulfillment centers servicing over 650 U.S. cities, in addition to the recently acquired BevMo! locations.