Delivery start-up Gopuff announced Wednesday that it’s bringing on former Disney CEO Bob Iger as an investor and advisor to the $15 billion company.
“It’s been exciting to spend time with Gopuff leadership learning about the company, the founders, and their aspirations,” Iger stated in a press release on the investment. “I am excited to advise, mentor, and support the executive team as they continue building a company uniquely designed for how consumers are changing and growing. I believe consumer commerce will be very different in the near future and Gopuff is building the platform to power it.”
The terms of Iger’s investment into Gopuff were not disclosed.
Iger stepped down as Disney CEO in 2020 before being succeeded by Bob Chapek, and he ended his term as Disney chairman last year. In March, CNBC reported that Iger and Chapek had a falling out and the two rarely talk — a rift that continues to loom over Disney’s future.
Unlike other delivery companies, such as DoorDash and Instacart, Gopuff doesn’t retrieve merchandise from retailers’ stores. Instead, it has its own network of micro-fulfillment centers — mini, high-tech warehouses — stocked with inventory. It sells more than 4,000 items from pet food to baby products to alcohol and more. Contract workers pick up the orders and quickly drop them at customers’ doors in about 30 minutes. According to Gopuff, 30% of Americans are within one mile and a half of a Gopuff fulfillment center.
The company ranked No. 27 on this year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list.
“Bob Iger is one of the most important and visionary business leaders of this generation,” Gopuff co-founder and co-CEO Yakir Gola said in the release. “Gopuff is building a platform designed for the future of the consumer industry and nobody understands consumers better than Bob Iger.”
In January, Gopuff announced that it was launching its own line of private label products — a move more in line with Amazon‘s e-commerce business model than DoorDash’s or Uber’s delivery platform. The company also recently partnered with British grocery chain Morrisons, marking its first tie-up with a rival retailer in Europe.
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