THIRSTY

Drizly Wants to Become “The Amazon.com for Alcohol"

A new app that lets you order booze from your smartphone and get it 30 minutes later just got $2.25 million in funding.

Want to order booze from your iPhone? There’s an app for that, too.

Boston-based Drizly announced today it has raised $2.25 million in seed capital to become “the Amazon.com for Alcohol.”

“Drizly is the Amazon.com for alcohol,” Nick Rellas, founder and CEO of Drizly, says in an email sent on behalf of the company. “The liquor store experience hasn’t evolved since Prohibition ended in 1933. A tiny fraction of $83 billion in liquor store revenue comes from deliveries. That’s because liquor delivery has been terribly inconvenient for the consumer and a hassle for the stores.”

Now,” Rellas says, “Drizly gives consumers the convenience of getting alcohol delivered quickly and responsibly.”

iPhone owners aged 21 and older can download the app today and order their favorite beer, wine, or liquor, and then sit back and wait while the booze is delivered—typically within 30 to 60 minutes. (Android is coming soon.)

Customer reviews on the app store, from users who presumably got a preview before the official launch, are giving the app solid reviews.

“From no beer to beer in 21 minutes. Driver scanned ID, I signed… I’m sold,” says a commenter named Simplysock. “I used the service quite a bit during the holidays and I was pretty impressed. Any issues were handled smoothly and the stores delivered in ~30 minutes,” adds Jacob.

The apps joins an increasingly crowded field of services meant to bridge the gap between the time a consumer orders a bottle off the internet and its arrival at their door. Among its competitors: Minibar, in New York City. (Another alcohol-delvery service, Swill, followed me on Twitter shortly after I tweeted a link to this story. They also tweeted a warm welcome to Drizly: "Congrats to @DrizlyInc, validating America's right to party. Cheers to the 21st Amendment #AlcoholDelivery.") While it’s no drone delivery, it’s still cool. We’re excited to give it a try.

And you can too—but only if you’re a resident of Boston or New York City. A spokeswoman for the company says it will be available in additional markets “soon.”

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Brian Ries

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