Travis K Talks Life After Ghost Kitchens
Postmater wins $50M, Klarna readies IPO, congesting pricing reduces honking
Happy St. Paddy’s Day… who out there got their Guinness delivered? We’ve got some hot lawsuits (no pun intended,) important IPOs, juicy congestion data and good ol’ Travis K gossip to chew on this evening…
This week’s edition is brought to you by Curbivore 2025.
Today:
Hot Coffee Means Big Payout for Starbucks
Can Klarna Clear Cloudy IPO Market?
Chart Time | More Congestion Pricing = Less Honking
Travis K’s Got No Shortage of Ambition
LEGAL | Starbucks Ordered to Pay $50M to Scalded Postmater
A jury has ordered coffee giant Starbucks to pay $50 million damages to a delivery worker who was injured after hot tea spilled on him, causing third-degree burns, nerve damage and disfigurement. The California case found that the barista had failed to properly secure the drink lids, and that one of the Venti-sized beverages was askew as it was passed to the Postmates worker. The incident happened in LA in February 2020, with two of the three hot drinks in a cardboard drink carrier injuring the gig worker’s groin, with the plaintiff claiming the barista “did not securely fasten the lids of each hot beverage that were negligently, carelessly and recklessly served to Plaintiff.”
The Big Picture: This case echoes that classic 1994 lawsuit, which became a poster child for tort reform, where a 79 year old woman was scalded by McDonald’s coffee. While Stella Liebeck made headlines for the $3 million verdict related to her third-degree burns and skin grafts, a judge later greatly reduced the damages. The current case is very au courant, what with the involvement of the Postmates gig delivery worker (Postmates was subsequently bought by Uber in July 2020.) The liability might have played out rather differently if the courier had been directly employed by Starbucks, or even Postmates.
EVENTS | Delivery & Mobility Comes Together at Curbivore 2025
Industry Dive just called Curbivore one of the “9 industry trade shows to attend in 2025.” Returning to the Downtown LA Arts District this April 10th and 11th, Curbivore brings together the world’s foremost fleet operators, restaurateurs, regulators, retailers, startups, technologists and policy makers to discuss the intersection of transportation systems, small business, urban design and commerce.
FINANCE | Klarna Nears IPO
Ecommerce and BNPL (buy now, pay later) darling Klarna is readying for its initial public offering, with the Swedish firm dropping a new F-1 and expecting to haul in at least $1 billion. Klarna has been getting its ducks in a row for this big listing, finally achieving a profit last year — $21M off 2.8B in rev — and just now scoring Walmart as a customer, a dagger in the heart of its arch-competitor Affirm. Klarna has 93 million customers and last year processed $105 billion in GMV for 675,000 merchants.
The Big Picture: Klarna has had a rocky road the last few years… it rocketed to a $45.6 billion valuation in July 2021, before crashing to $6.7 billion one year later. (Who else remembers that pandemic delivery boom making the world go craaaaazy?) Now the company is targeting a relatively sane $15 billion valuation in its Nasdaq debut. Other tech companies will be eagerly watching to see how the market responds; the IPO window has remained pretty darn frozen the past few years.
CHART TIME | Honk If You Like Congestion Pricing!
Congestion pricing in NYC has had a tumultuous few months, with President Trump and the FTA threatening to kill the program, right as its finally proven popular with both commuters and businesses, who appreciate that a few extra bucks means faster and more reliable travel times. Beyond the improvements to commuters, shippers and the environment, there’s now one more win to celebrate: less honking!
OPERATIONS | CloudKitchens Plans Life After Ghost Kitchens
Travis Kalanick, the Uber founder turned CloudKitchens leader, is finally being a bit less tight lipped about his stealthy company’s strategy. For starters, he sees a big future in using AI to optimize meals, food prep, and menu customization — eventually serving as a tool to bring down the price point for lower income consumers. Second, he sees traditional 3PDs as having a fraught relationship with restaurants, as the latter are “getting yield optimization on a thing that’s built for something else,” and if you’re “on somebody else’s platform… they can squeeze you.”
The Big Picture: Speaking at Peter Diamandis’ Abundance Summit, Kalanick pontificated on a number of topics, including bemoaning that Uber’s current management had “killed the autonomous car project.” Not exactly the choice of words we would have used, considering the circumstances of the program’s demise… Other tech leaders also seem to have AI for food on the mind these days, Marc Lore and Tony Hoggett see it as central to their quest to turn Wonder into the “super app for meal time.”
A Few Good Links
Second Circuit rules Grubhub antitrust case belongs in court while Uber Eats and Postmates head to arbitration. DoorDash makes its case for Dasher behavior. QSR sales fall. Get ready for more chicken and bevvies. Amazon’s LTL ambitions rattle competitors. UPS cuts sorting shifts. Racist DOGE staffer broke treasury data sharing rules. JET grants employees stock. Trump says more tariffs coming 4/2. Michigan town angry about Chinese battery plant. Uber gives up on Foodpanda Taiwan buy-out due to regulatory concerns.
See you at Curbivore 2025: April 10-11 in Downtown Los Angeles.
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