The On Demand Weekly #11

When you are able to directly connect and communicate with a student from Stanford University through a mobile app, you know the world has graduated to the next level of on-demand technology. This is what we all felt when we got to know about Nerd. Now the question is, which is the next sharing economy startup that will blow our minds away.

Juggernaut’s Insight:

French intercity ride-sharing platform BlaBlaCarsaid Wednesday it acquired German peer carpooling.com and Hungary-based Autohop.
The fresh capital, which brings Grofer’s total raised so far to $45.5 million, will be used to increase the number of consumable items, including groceries, it offers.
Munchery is breaking the monotony by not relying upon the contract labor for their deliveries but by giving benefits to their salaried employees.

Industry News

On-Demand Marijuana Delivery Startup Eaze Raises $10 Million As Investors Grow Less Skittish

Eaze is a service that connects medical marijuana patients with dispensaries, and its funding round, announced Tuesday, is one of the biggest raised by a startup in the cannabis industry, an area that many investors have been slow to embrace.

Hello Alfred raises $10.5 million in Series A round for on-demand assistants

Over the past five months, the on-demand butlers working for Hello Alfred have worked over 40,000 hours, dry cleaned 57,600 shirts, delivered 3,326 pounds of dog food and carefully arranged 1,280 bouquets in homes. Now, the startup has another number it can point to to show its success: the $10.5 million it’s just raised in a Series A round lead by NEA and Spark Capital.

On-demand meal service Sprig raises $45M Series B

There has been a flurry of activity in the food delivery space lately, with acquisitions, fund raising and companies launching their own services.
The latest to get funded is Sprig, on-demand meal service, which announced on Wednesday that it has raised $45 million in Series B funding.

Eye-Opener

The Risk Of Reviewing The Reviewer

The rise of two-way reviews and the rise of the sharing economy have gone hand in hand.Sharing with strangers relies on trust. Online, trust is built through reviews of past behavior and actions. In this way, trust is the currency of the sharing economy, and reviews the basis for earning it.

Sharing economy poised to explode, PwC survey declares

Nearly 60% of adults say “access is the new ownership,” a nod to the coming boom in the sharing economy, according to a new PwC Consumer Intelligence Series report. That means hot companies ranging from ride-hailing service Uber to house-rental player Airbnb are likely to generate like-minded offspring as consumers look to leverage tech to save money.

Industry Experts

Decoding: The Maths behind Uber [And On-Demand Businesses]

Uber has built a $40 billion company based on these core principles. At the heart of this valuation lies the success Uber has showcased in making a previously inaccessible service cheaper and more accessible.

Success Story

David Mandell on How PivotDesk is providing a Marketplace for Shared Office Space

PivotDesk is fabulously mixing the trend of Collaborative Consumption and Real Estate by creating a transparent marketplace for those who have an extra office space and for those who are in lookout for an office space like Startups, Small Businesses and Remote Teams.
David Mandell shares his insight on how conventional way of leasing an office space can be revamped by providing a better and more flexible peer-to-peer solution to both the parties, just like PivotDesk.