Former Walmart e-commerce manager Zachary Dennett talks about his new gig leading U.S. operations for Jokr, which has launched 15-minute delivery in New York City.

Instacart Inc. has an audacious plan to replace its army of gig shoppers with robots—part of a long-term strategy to cut costs and put its relationship with supermarket chains on a sustainable footing.

Online meat seller ButcherBox has launched an online storefront on Instacart, the companies announced in a press release on Friday. Shoppers in the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Miami areas will have access first before the service expands to other metros this summer.

The fast-track grocery delivery firm Getir is set to expand into the US, France and Germany after raising more than $550m in a funding round that values the Turkish company at more than $7.5bn.

Hungryroot, a startup offering personalized grocery delivery, completed a funding round that brings its valuation to about $750 million, according to a person familiar with the matter, as interest in online food shopping remains elevated during the pandemic.

Kroger will launch its first autonomous drone delivery from a Centerville store this week using technology based locally in Monroe.

Despite lockdown restrictions being lifted worldwide, food and grocery delivery app use is still on the rise, according to new research.

The technology needed to fulfill orders is costly for stores, and the workers who pick items off the shelves often feel the pressure of being tracked.

Thanks to the deal with Instacart, Organic Garage has extended its delivery range and online delivery availability to over 2.11 million households in the Ontario marke.

Longo’s, a family-operated Canadian grocer that started in 1956 by three brothers, has grown to operate 36 stores in communities across Toronto and the GTA, as well as Grocery Gateway, a leader in online sales of home-delivered groceries.

Investors have been keen to pump money into the sector following a rapid surge in delivery demand amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, this new wave of start-ups faces pressure from established players in the takeaway market – such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats – which have grown with retail partnerships.

When Alec Dent and Kristof Van Beveren were setting up Weezy, an on-demand grocery delivery start-up, the two worked a few Deliveroo shifts "just to see how it works."

On-demand grocery delivery, which really came into its own with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, continues to command huge attention from investors. The jury is still out on how people will use those services in the longer term, but in the meantime, the most ambitious of the startups in the field are raising big.