Postmates Launches In Brooklyn And Adds David Sacks, Dave Morin, And Bill Lee As Investors

[TechCrunch]

Postmates is expanding its service in the New York City area, crossing the bridge and making its mobile delivery service available in Brooklyn, as well as Manhattan. The expansion also comes as the company has added a trio of new investors, bringing angels David Sacks, Dave Morin, and Bill Lee on board.

But first, the expansion: Postmates is kicking off its Brooklyn coverage with more than 200 restaurants that have been added to its app, allowing customers in the borough to order from nearby restaurants for the first time. To support the new borough, Postmates has added a whole new fleet of couriers to make pickups and deliveries there.

Postmates has seen pretty dramatic growth in Manhattan. It's growing at about 60 percent since launch, which is three times faster than in San Francisco. And New York City as a market is already profitable for the company. So it makes sense that Postmates would begin supporting the nearby borough as its next expansion market.

According to CEO and co-founder Bastian Lehmann, there are many things that are interesting about Brooklyn. For one thing, it's home to more than 2.5 million people, which makes it the company's second-largest market after Manhattan. And there's been a huge amount of pent-up demand there - Lehmann says that since launching in New York City, the app has been opened by someone in Brooklyn 60 percent of the time, even though there was no coverage there.

Brooklyn customers will pay the same prices as those in Manhattan for deliveries, starting at $5 for ultra-local delivery and skewing up based on distance within the borough. But for those who are feeling ultra-adventurous or have a craving for something from Manhattan, Postmates will also make deliveries across boroughs for a delivery fee of $20.

The expansion comes as Postmates has added a few new names to its investor ranks. The company already had a pretty impressive investor list, including Founders Fund, SoftTech VC, Matrix Partners, Crosslink Capital, and Expansion Venture Capital, along with angels such as Scott Banister, David Wu, Thomas Korte, Naval Ravikant, Russell Cook, Russel Simmons, Walter Lee, Andy McLoughlin, Paige Craig, and Jawed Karim.

But it's recently added Yammer founder David Sacks, Path founder Dave Morin, and Remarq founder Bill Lee as investors. Sacks comes with a lot of experience in the on-demand space, as he's also an investor in Uber and Lyft, while Morin and Lee also have done a pretty good job of picking winners as angel investors. Lehmann said that the team had hoped to get those three as investors earlier, but it finally worked out as the company added a little bit of additional capital.

"If someone like David Sacks offers his help, you don't turn him down," he said. For Postmates, the new investors will help to advise as it scales up and continues expansion into even more markets going forward.

[TechCrunch]