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ASAP (food delivery)
ASAP Inc., stylized Asap, was an American online and mobile prepared food ordering and delivery and Grocery delivery company. It originated in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where it was founded as Waitr, Inc. by Chris Meaux with support from McNeese State University.[2] The company was headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana. HistoryWaitr, Inc. was founded at McNeese State University as a project led by Chris Meaux. It quickly spread throughout Louisiana and across the southern United States. In 2015, Waitr hired Griff’s Hamburger Executive Cory Griffin as Chief Operating Officer.[3] In 2018, the company was acquired through a $308 million reverse takeover by Tilman Fertitta's Lancadia holdings, which is part of the Fertitta Entertainment portfolio.[3] In January 2019, Waitr acquired Minneapolis-based Bite Squad for $321 million, which effectively doubled Waitr's size. Bite Squad founder Kian Salehi stayed on for several months post-acquisition before leaving the company.[4] In 2019, the company announced it would lay off all of its employed drivers, and move to a contract-only model, similar to Grubhub and DoorDash.[5] The move resulted in 2,300 drivers being laid off.[6] Carl Grimstad was appointed Waitr's CEO in 2020 and tasked with recovering the company after a US$291 million net loss in 2019. Despite the significant increase in footprint it gained from the Bite Squad acquisition, Waitr still only had a 3% share of the US food delivery market. Grimstad focused on differentiating the company from its competitors, especially DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub.[6] In 2021, Waitr made several major acquisitions. It bought Florida-based food delivery service Delivery Dudes in March for about US$23 million.[7] It acquired three payment processing companies all focused on cannabis dispensaries: ProMerchant, Flow Payments in March, and Cape Cod Merchant Services. Waitr also attempted to purchase Retail Innovation Labs Inc, makers of the Cova POS and inventory platforms, for US$90 million in December, however, the acquisition was not completed.[8][9] The company announced in January 2022 that later in the year it would be rebranding itself ASAP and shift focus to non-restaurant deliveries, particularly cannabis. [10] The company expected to begin cannabis deliveries in Canada by the end of the year.[6] The renaming and a payment of US$4.7 million were part of a settlement with Waiter.com who had sued Waitr over trademark infringement. Waiter.com had been founded in 1995 and trademarked its name in 2000, 8 years before Waitr's founding.[11] On March 30, 2024, ASAP announced it would cease operations.[citation needed] On April 2, 2024, Waitr Holdings declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.[12] References
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