Frolick

Frolick is a prepared meal delivery platform founded in November 2021. The company is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, and currently operates across DC and Northern Virginia, with immediate plans to expand to Maryland and eventually nationwide. Customers can download the Frolick app on their mobile devices and select from a weekly rotating selection of meal options prepared by award-winning chefs.

It uses central commercial kitchens and stacked delivery to achieve cost efficiencies that can be passed on to the customers. Meal preparation is carried out at the kitchen facilities of two partners—the Swiss multinational catering network Gategroup and California-based cloud kitchen operator CloudKitchens. Meanwhile, the company uses proprietary, in-house software to manage its logistics and delivery services, including batching orders by neighborhood. Frolick orders are delivered in batches of 5–20 orders to optimize efficiency and reduce delivery costs.

The company claims to deliver meals for 50% less than other delivery services and claims that it does not levy additional charges such as subscription fees, delivery fees, tips, surcharges, or order minimums. The company employs its own delivery drivers and pays them an extra USD 20 an hour (as of July 2022), thereby eliminating the need to rely on tips or extra fees. Meal prices on the platform are inclusive of all taxes and are reportedly free of hidden charges. As of July 2022, the entrees on the app cost less than USD 10.

In July 2022, Frolick raised USD 1.8 million in a pre-seed round with participation from Get Group as strategic investors and several angel investors including current and former executives of Delivery Hero and Gopuff. The funds were to be used to scale the company’s operations including hiring, marketing, and geographic expansion.