Uber Eats dives into prescription delivery
Following a successful delivery pilot in Dallas, Austin and Houston, Texas, Uber Technologies is expanding its on-demand prescription delivery to one of the largest U.S. metros: New York City.
Powered by technology platform Nimble, Uber Eats can now connect New Yorkers with prescription delivery, enabling them to easily transfer existing prescriptions — or fulfill new ones — from neighborhood pharmacies right from an app.
“At Uber, we’re hard at work making Uber Eats your go-to destination for much more than food from your favorite restaurant, corner store or grocer,” said Kiran Vinta, Uber’s U.S. GM for new verticals. “I’m excited to announce that we’re one step closer to delivering that reality to our consumers everywhere with the launch of on-demand prescription delivery in the U.S., powered by our partner Nimble. Now more than ever, people are looking for ways to safely and conveniently get the things they need, and we’re proud to bring the very best parts of Uber to prescription delivery.”
Customers can manage their medications with the tap of a button, directly from the Uber Eats app, and follow their prescriptions at every step of the journey: from phone to pharmacy to doorstep.
Controlled substances are ineligible, as are prescriptions paid for, in whole or in part, by any government health care program such as Medicare, Medicaid or TRICARE.
“Over the past year, consumers have increasingly craved a faster, easier and safer way to receive their prescriptions,” said Talha Sattar, founder and CEO of Redwood City, California-based Nimble, adding that the company “was built on a simple idea: to allow neighborhood pharmacies to take better care of their customers by providing a high-quality and more convenient experience. This partnership expansion with Uber Eats will allow us to offer millions of New Yorkers on-demand prescription delivery at a time when they and the city’s pharmacies need it most.”
The prescription delivery service also partnered with Uber in its Texas pilot locations. Nimble has raised more than $50 million of venture capital from Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, First Round Capital, DAG Ventures and Khosla Ventures.
The medication move into the New York City quickly follows news of Uber Eats partnering with Rexall Drugstores in Canada for delivery of health and personal care products. Uber Eats will deliver essential items to Rexall customers in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.
Uber Health launched in March 2018 to broaden Uber for Business’ suite of enterprise solutions and support its vision to meet the transportation needs of businesses across industries. Additionally, in July 2020, San Francisco-based Uber launched its grocery delivery service with Cornershop. Based on increased demand for its grocery delivery, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of two recent acquisitions, Uber said that it's on track to facilitate $1 billion in grocery sales annually.
This story originally appeared on Progressive Grocer.