Shane Delia’s home delivery idea becomes a $100M marketplace
Shane Delia’s high-end food delivery service Providoor, has generated more than $100 million in its first year, turning the celebrity chef into a tech entrepreneur.
Providoor is the brainchild of Maha owner Delia and Marketplacer CEO Jason Wyatt. Marketplacer is a global technology led platform that enables customers to create all types of marketplaces.
As lockdowns crippled the restaurant industry, Providoor became one of the best alternatives to bring fine dining food straight to people’s homes.
Not wanting to put his head in the sand during COVID lockdowns, Providoor was born of Delia’s idea to create the Maha Go service, which enabled diners to create the Maha experience at home.
As Delia tells the Australian Financial Review, “You have to perceive that there are many things out of your control, but there are many things you can control as well.”
Maha staff delivered orders straight to people’s doors. To do so, Delia borrowed 30 delivery vans from a friend’s produce business.
The Maha Go concept led Delia to approach Marketplace co-founders Wyatt and Sam Salter, who convinced the chef that he had a whole new market on his hands that would bring productivity back into the Melbourne restaurant scene during the pandemic and beyond.
Providoor was built in just five weeks and has delivered more than 230,000 meals. Although it took a few weeks for people to get the message, Delia believes this is a blessing in disguise telling the AFR, “If we had introduced Providoor with the volume we’re seeing right now, our design would have collapsed.
Restaurant partners include Bomba, Botanical Hotel, Cutler and Do, Flower Drum, Oriental Teahouse, Maha and many more.
It now also offers livestream cooking classes with some of Australia’s best chefs including Scott Pickett, Teage Ezard, Khanh Nguyen, Frank Camorra, Darren Purchese, Andreas Papadakis, Victor Liong and Ben Pollard.
Providoor has been built into a business with national and potentially international scale and while it is expected business may slow down as restaurants re-open, the Providoor owners believe they have created a marketplace that will continue to grow over time.
Certainly, as restaurants attract customers back to venues, they can also now continue to find new markets by delivering their high-end dishes to people at home.
Irit Jackson, 3rd November 2020
