DoorDash Canada is rolling out a program where it will provide an "undetermined" number of $10,000 grants to restaurants that have been hit by natural disasters.
Eligible restaurant owners must have at least one bricks-and-mortar location, no more than three restaurants and annual revenue that is no more than $3 million per location.
The restaurants must have been in business at least six months and owners must show proof that they have experienced hardship due to a provincially or federally declared natural disaster, DoorDash Canada general manager Shilpa Arora told BIV this morning.
The international meal-delivery chain (NYSE:DASH) has operated this program in the U.S. since 2021, and is rolling it out in countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand this year, she said.
DoorDash has so far provided about 100 of the grants to American restaurant owners.
Shilpa said that her company is partnering with a third-party partner, Global Entrepreneurship Network, to help administer the program.
The grants are intended to cover expenses such as payroll for existing employees, product development, inventory, marketing, rent and utilities.
DoorDash Canada at this point is readying to accept applications until March 29.
Arora said Metro Vancouver is one of her company's bigger markets in Canada and that its weighting in terms of drivers, customers and orders is proportional to its population across Canada.
DoorDash Canada employs hundreds of workers across the country, including software engineers, and it has three physical offices: its Toronto head office and smaller offices in Montreal and Vancouver.
"Dozens" of its full-time workers are based in B.C., she said.
DoorDash Canada's catchment area extends from Vancouver out to Abbotsford, as well as up to Whistler, she said. The company also operates on Vancouver Island and in Kelowna and other parts of the province.
Arora would not provide data for how many restaurants are on her platform. Nor would she say how many delivery people (known as dashers) or annual orders the company has.
While DoorDash's origins are in servicing very dense areas, its suburban and smaller-community service means that most of its dashers are in cars, and not bikes or scooters, Arora said.
The company's shift to enable customers to add grocery and household products to their food orders has been a success, she added.
DoorDash Canada has partnerships with companies such as Loblaw Co. Ltd. (TSX:L) and 7-Eleven Canada Inc.
"There's a lot of selection and obviously we're continuing to add to that," she said.
"We call it double dash. Without having to pay an additional fee, consumers can add on another order from a different location."
